BASIL SYLVESTER PINTO
Coming into prominence with Hindi films like Love Sex Aur Dhoka (2010) and Pyaar Ka Punchnama (2011), Nushrat Bharucha, is an actress who has essayed female lead Bollywood. Bharucha was recently in the State for an event. In a free-wheeling exclusive with TG Life, the soft-spoken and affable Sonu Ke Tittu Ki Sweety (SKTKS) actress spoke on her career.
Excerpts:
TG Life: How do you look at your career in the film industry shaping up after 12 years?
Nushrat Bharucha: I think my career has shaped up really well. I think it is an industry where you can’t plan and plot every move of yours. Friday naseeb isliye bolta hai because you do not know what will happen to your film when it releases. The most you can do is do a good job and pray that all goes well. Whole bunch of my films have done well. May be two have not done well. So I think it is going really well and I am very thankful that I have got good Fridays.
TG: With the success of Sonu Ke Tittu Ki Sweety (SKTKS) last year you made your entry into the 100-crore club. Tell us more about the success behind the small film.
Nushrat: It was not a small film. It was definitely a decent big-budgeted film not as much as the biggies of the industry are. But for people who were just starting up like me, Kartik (Aaryan) and Sunny (Nijar) it was a very big film. There was a lot of money was put into it. We were just very overwhelmed by the fact that people loved it so much and that is where the money came from. It was nothing else. It was people that kept going back to watch the film 6-7 times and we touched that number (100 crores).
TG: How was the experience working in SKTKS?
Nushrat: It was amazing. We were a group of people who started off doing small, content film with absolute new faces and nobody was really willing to put that kind of money and backing for us. It was one-one step at a time. With this film when we came together and experienced a sort of success it was nicer, because it was the same team of people. I wouldn’t have wished to do this film with anybody else but this group of people.
TG: Tell us something about your forthcoming films.
Nushrat: I am doing a film with Rajkummar Rao called Turram Khan and another with Ayushmann Khurana called Dream Girl. Both are very funny, quirky comedy, fun spaces. It also gives me an opportunity to dwell in different sort of languages and narratives with different directors. I like the choices I’ve made so far. In Turram Khan, I’m playing a very girl-next-door. A strong and real character.
The whole story is a social comedy; there are a lot of real moments in it. I’m really liking the fact that I am doing a real, earthen character from a small-town which Hansal ji portrays very well and that I think is my strength in the film. Dream Girl is an out and out commercial film. We just had fun in it. We did great songs and had a blast. It was interesting to be around these two set-ups. One was a complete comedy while the other, really rooted, earthen film.
TG: What are the challenging roles you would love to do?
Nushrat: I think Smita Patil ji and Shabana Azmi ji in Arth were outstanding to me. To do either of those roles in a film like that would be great.
TG: What would be your message to fans?
Nushrat: I think I’ve very recently realized what kind of a responsibility you have when you are that popular. So many people looking at you every day, trying to be like you, learn something from you, take something from you.
Subconsciously, what I am seeing and doing now is actually impacting a lot of people. I want to tell them that I will make mistakes, please forgive me for that. I’m human. But I will try and be as responsible as I can and mold as many people in the right way as I possibly can.
