Ileana D’Cruz’s socially aware character in Phata Poster Nikla Hero keeps cops on their toes but she says in real life policemen can do little as far as women’s safety is concerned. She talks to Eram Agha
Once upon a time actor Ileana D’Cruz was called “butterfingers” by her family. She was clumsy in handling objects like glasses and cups. “Everything slipped from my hands,” she said. But now D’Cruz is holding her own, charting a journey in the most unpredictable field of Bollywood (currently facing an exodus of new faces).
Her first Bollywood film Barfi! wasn’t easy for her because all the acts she performed in Kollywood and Tollywood didn’t suit the requirements of her debut. “Tollywood, Kollywood and Bollywood are three different temperaments or cultures and the switch wasn’t easy for me. Kollywood makes a mix of art and commercial films and Tollywood is incredibly loud and colourful, so when I had to take up the role in Barfi! I had to unlearn everything, underplay and start from the scratch. I had to be very organic and experience-driven in my performance, but now with Phata Poster Nikla Hero (PPNH) I am more settled in,” she said.
One thing that is common in Tollywood, Kollywood and Bollywood is “camps, but then it is not compulsory to be part of any of them. I have been here without any camp association or godfather,” she said.
PPNH is going to be her second Bollywood film. She has not been brought up on a staple diet of Hindi films, but she still has a memory of some light-hearted comedy flicks, “I have a few favourites in Hindi films though I never watched them as I spoke only English at home, in fact even today I do that. I love Amar Akbar Anthony, Seeta Aur Geeta, I enjoyed the whole thing of women power with two Hemas, I don’t mind playing that character, we should have such chick flicks,” she said. Satte Pe Satta and Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke are her other two favourites, “There must have been much better ones but these are close to my heart,” she said.
What she likes about director Rajkumar Santoshi’s films is that “he makes films that have gullible and likeable characters, innocent dialogues and neat comedy.” She added, “I am a director’s actor and a spontaneous one too, but I don’t expect my director to enact a scene for me, I rely on them, approach them in need.”