You’ve recently recovered from COVID-19. How are you feeling now?
I cannot really complain because I’m in Spain. I’m glad that if I had to go through COVID, at least if I’m not with my family; I’m here with my partner Manuel. So I’m getting all the love that I need and all the support that I need and a happy and positive environment. I’m glad that I’m here, because I’m not missing the Delhi winters anymore. It’s as cold, as you can see, I’m still wearing layers. But it’s nice to be here.
How did you and Manuel meet?
It’s been a while, we met in 2019 in Rome. I don’t want to give so many details because that’s a very personal part of my life. I think I’m really happy I get to cherish it and remember it, and hopefully have a story that I can tell my grandkids. We met in Rome and it was very weird because I’m from India and he is from Spain, and we met there for his company and he invited me for some work. So I think it had a lot of things to do with faith.
How are you managing being in Spain and yet managing your work in India?
Yeah, that’s more hectic and stressful to be honest. But luckily, my projects are only starting, my next project is in March in Mumbai. So I’m okay to be honest. But it’s such a time that everything has become digital, we’re digitally promoting, doing ads, photoshoots… Just two days back, I had a shoot over here for some Spanish brand, so I think the digital world has made it nicer. I think work from home has even become (a boon) for actors because when we are not shooting, we’re doing advertisements, promotions and now it’s all become virtual. So it’s nice, even sitting here, I’m still working over something.
What is your idea of romance?
I think my idea of romance is really simple, like watching a movie together, just holding each other’s hand and just doing small things together even if it’s just going out for a walk or being tired together also. It’s just the little things that I think for my idea of romance, because you realise that the romance that you see in films when you’re young, you grow up with that idea… but as you grow old and mature, you realise that you don’t want a love like that, it’s too hectic. It’s only good in the movies, but in real life it’s the little things that really matter and I think especially being with Manuel, I’ve changed. I’ve learnt a lot. Also our thought process is very different, it’s good when it’s like this, because you always get to learn from someone who’s better than you.
We hear you’re working with Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty in a comedy film…
I’m sorry, I don’t know how much I can speak right now but that’s the one I was telling that I’ll start shooting, I’m really excited about it because the star cast gets as better as it can get. The director Sameer Karnik, I didn’t even know that I’ll be meeting him and all I can tell you is that the moment we started the narration, till we finished the narration, I was laughing, crying… and it’s good to do those family comedies, where the friends are together, it’s just really nice. I’m actually very excited about it because it’s my second comedy. I’ve not really explored the genre of comedy.
You also are working with Suniel Shetty in ‘The Invisible Woman‘…
I can tell you that’s a thriller because I love doing thrillers. With the thriller, the problem is that you can’t give away anything, because it’s the whole crux. But it’s something that’s not been done, it’s a very fast-paced show I can tell you. The director is Rajesh sir and he’s amazing. I heard the role, I heard the script and the first thing was of course Suniel Shetty doing it. It’s a role that I’m very excited that I got to play The character, the role, the show, everything’s nice and it’s very well written and it has got a lot of twists.
People appreciate your grey roles a lot . So how does that feel?
It makes me feel really good. Thank you for actually noticing that. I was Priyanka’s fan the moment I saw ‘Aitraaz’ and I was blown away. From the farthest of my dream, I didn’t even know that I’ll become an actor because we were not even in Mumbai, I didn’t even think that I want to go for Miss India. I was more in my studies, and my work, my life. My father was in the Airforce, but it’s not the thought that I ever had. But I saw that movie and I realised that some roles just stay with you, some cinema just stays with you and it stayed with me. I think the first role I got was ‘Rustom’, and then Vicky Chaddha of ‘Commando’ and it stayed with me and I always wanted to do more of that. In fact I have two of such roles this year that I’ll be portraying, I won’t say negative but they are grey, because I like playing that. I like playing it because it gives you more to do, and honestly I think that the biggest thing is when people see your character and be like, ‘Oh, that was convincing enough. We hated you, we didn’t like you.’ I think that’s nice because you can always play the goody good, but those are the kind of roles that I personally really love doing. If you look at the movie ‘ No country for old men’ you’ll see that Javier Bardam’s role is so good, even though he’s negative, he’s not the hero of the movie. So I feel like I personally love doing roles which I see and I’m like, ‘Oh, I remember that role more.’
Your pictures often make noise on the internet, and while there are people who love your photos, there are some who also troll you. How do you react to such comments?
Honestly, the trolling really bothered me when we were all new to Instagram. I don’t think that it was just social media trolling, it was even the fact that initially when you enter the industry, you realise that people can just write whatever they want to. Even journalists, no offense to the profession… because that’s something that even I have studied, but I think people just write whatever they want to write about you. Whether it’s freedom of speech or whatever, they just write. So by the end, you can’t really go to someone and tell them what to do.
In fact I still remember it was a while back, there was someone who had written something bad about me. The journalists are very gutsy, having the news and the kind of things they do is not easy. People think it’s easy to have your name written and then write something, it’s not easy. You at least have a face and a name to speak that who’s talking. I still remember that someone once had written something really wrong about me and I went to that level and made him apologise and write that it’s being changed. But that’s the thing, when it comes to that, you at least have a name and face, but trolls don’t have a name and face. You will just see suddenly see someone with a username Sweetie0121, who’s following 200 people have zero posts and followers and you realise that it’s one of those fake accounts.
I also realised that the real meaning of trolls used to be ugly giants under the bridge, who used to trouble people and kids and it’s the same now. These people have no face, they have no name, they have no personality, they have nothing else to do, so they hide under. Instead of the bridge, they hide under that persona and they just write whatever they want to, and the more you realise that, you’ll know that what they write doesn’t matter. Because earlier it used to affect me, I was worried if my mom or sister was going to read it, what would they feel. But now I don’t even think they’ll read also, it’s just in your head because you’re so concerned about it. So now they can write whatever and I’m just like, ‘I’m okay doing it’. For me, the only people that really matter is my family, and my boyfriend, and no one else really matters. Because they are the one’s who’ll love me, they’re the one’s who will be there for me when I’m crying and when I’m happy, they’ll be clapping for me. So I don’t think anyone else’s opinion really matters. But it takes you years to have that understanding that these things are frivolous, they don’t matter.
Do you thinks Bollywood often becomes a soft target for a lot of people?
You know that’s where the insecurity comes. Just recently, I was talking to Manuel and I was like, especially during lockdown and not only during lockdown, before that, I started slowly cutting off from a lot of friends and now since this whole lockdown, the thought process changes. You realise that it’s not the materialistic things that matter, not like I was ever materialistic… Because for me, I had to work to get everything in my life, that’s the way most humble background I come from, so for me it didn’t matter. But being in Delhi, especially being in Bollywood, the industry kids, they judge you in the car you come, the clothes you’re wearing. If it’s branded or not, or you repeated your clothes or a bag or shoes, and you realise that there are a lot of people who’ll be there when there’s something wrong that happens with you, to show you that we support you. But there’ll be a very few people who’ll actually be cheering for you when you’re doing well.
During the lockdown, I left Twitter. I didn’t face any negativity at that time, but every time you login on Twitter, it’s a first-hand source of news, you go and you only see negativity. One day, I just deactivated and removed myself from that app and I was like, ‘I don’t want to know anything.’ You know how that saying goes, “When I was matured I realised that I wanted to change the world, but when I became wise I realised that I have to change myself.” So I think that’s the rule I follow now.
