‘Rom-coms are one of the easiest films to watch, but one of the most difficult to make.’

Photograph: Kind courtesy Shraddha Kapoor/Instagram

Shraddha Kapoor wants you to fall in love with her all over again, after watching Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar where she stars opposite Ranbir Kapoor for the first time.

Directed by Luv Ranjan, the trailer looks like a breeze, like an easy watch.

But Shraddha tells Rediff.com Contributor Mohnish Singh in the first of a two-part interview, “It looks too simple on screen. You feel it was like a cakewalk, but it’s not. Luv Ranjan squeezes out his actors in every possible way.”

You will be seen in a film after three years. How does it feel?

I am feeling nervous. I am excited also. I feel like this is my debut.

My fingers and toes are both crossed!

I hope people like the film, and my work in it.

You return to the rom-com space after 2017’s Ok Jaanu.

I feel rom-coms are one of the easiest films to watch, but one of the most difficult to make.

I am a rom-com buff.

I love rom-coms by YRF like Hum Tum.

I also love Pretty Woman and Notting Hill. Julia Roberts is a great actress. In fact, she is one of my favourite Hollywood actresses.

More than being a part of a rom-com, I think the character I play in this film is so different.

You got a glimpse of her in the trailer where she says, ‘Mast drive hai, maze karenge. Don’t worry, main daaru pilake faayda nai uthaungi.’

She is on the front foot and as an actor, it was very refreshing for me to play a character like this.

She has taken charge and she knows what she wants.

It’s so different from the kind of roles I have done; so different from the impression people have about me.

 

IMAGE: Shraddha Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor in Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar.

Director Luv Ranjan has a certain way of telling a story. How was it for you on your first day?

His world is a typical Luv Ranjan world. His dialogues are a character in his films.

People will immediately connect with those dialogues and they will become memorable.

To be a part of a film where your dialogue is almost like your co-star… that was my experience.

He is very particular about the way a dialogue has to be said and where should one take the right pauses, the way it should be delivered.

Initially, I used to wonder how does it matter if I replace a word here or there. I was allowed to do that in other movies.

As an actor, you are allowed to improvise and go with the flow.

Initially, I used to feel that I am mouthing my dialogues correctly, but he would say, ‘No, no. Retake. Yeh alag shabd use kiya aapne.’

I would be like, ‘How is that possible? I know every dialogue.’

He would say, ‘Nahi, ye aapne word change kar diya tha.’

I would argue, ‘It means the same, right?

But he would insist, ‘No, this is how the meaning gets changed.’

Luv likes a lot of retakes because he is very particular about how the dialogues are being delivered, and how the writing is being conveyed by the actors.

It looks too simple on screen.

You feel it was like a cakewalk but it’s not.

Luv Ranjan squeezes out his actors in every possible way.

Photograph: Kind courtesy Shraddha Kapoor/Instagram

IMAGE: Shraddha and Ranbir in Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar.

You and Ranbir have known each other since childhood, but it took you two more than a decade to come together in a film. Were you and Ranbir not offered a film before Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar?

Yes, nothing was offered to us.

I admire him as an actor.

After I saw him in Saawariya, I was just like, ‘Okay, he is really good in his first film.’

All of us at home loved his work.

Then I started thinking, ‘Okay, he has done a good job in this film. Let me see his next film.’

And he was so good (in Bachana Ae Haseeno), so I was like, ‘Okay, he is damn good in it. Let’s see his third film.’

After watching Wake Up Sid, I felt, ‘Oh my God! A career-changing film.’

Since then, I have had the desire to work with him, so it’s great that this has happened.



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