Actress Deepika Padukone has literally left me mind blown with the trailer of Gehraiyaan. The film deals with relationships and infidelity in the modern way, and right from the first scene, this story has had my attention. Now, while I am eagerly waiting for the 11th of February (that’s when it releases), I was quite impressed with the way Deepika deconstructed her character Alisha and the film’s story for us during an interview.
But before that, check out the film’s trailer here:
Recently, our boss lady Malini Agarwal spoke to the cast of this film, and her conversation with Deepika had some real gehraiyaan, especially, when the two discussed all things about and around DP’s character and infidelity.
Read the excerpts from the interview here:
On why Deepika picked this film…
The first reason why I chose to do this film was Shakun, I’ve just been a fan of his work, but more importantly when we became friends I was just fascinated and continue to be, by his mind. We are always bouncing ideas of each other and I think somewhere we are both the kind of people who try to push the envelope. Also, do something with purpose, otherwise there is no point doing it. Those are the main reasons why I decided to do the film, all other things came later. The depth, the layers, the observational lengths on infidelity which is just one aspect of the film. As an audience while growing up, I have always enjoyed relationship dramas and films that are closer to reality. I think, he (Shakun) is one of the best people to tell that kind of stories. For me it was just everything put together. I was sure that I wanted to do this film.
On portraying a character like Alisha…
It comes more from a place of what Alisha is going through emotionally in her head. So she was just feeling stuck. That is compounded by everything else that is happening in her life at that point. Apart from the infidelity there is a beautiful track between father and daughter, a relationship between Ananya’s character and me, its different kinds of relationships that you discover through the film.
On how the blame game around infidelity will change with her character…
That’s going to change with this film and it is because of Shakun’s vision for this film. A part of it is just our performance, but a large part is just the way he shot the movie. The purpose of this film is that you don’t look at these characters for their choices in a judgmental way, but just as an observation. With this movie people are going to realize that there are different kinds of people in this world and everyone is going through their own turmoil and struggle. I am pretty certain that post this film people will start looking at not just infidelity, but just complexities in a very different way.
On if she was able to relate to Alisha…
I didn’t find it hard to relate to her at all. Surely there are aspects of her choices that I as a person may not agree with, but at the same time when you are playing a character, you look at with a non-judgmental lens and empathy. The minute you do that, it becomes you. That switch happened for me with Cocktail, that was film where initially when I was struggling with ‘but I don’t believe in this’ and how I took my beliefs aside and just be true to what these characters choices are. I think I have grown from there and today with this film I have been able to do with a very sort of this is me and this is the character I am playing, but at the same time be able to put a little bit of myself into it.
You can watch the entire interview here:
These are some amazing insights Deepika has shared about her character, I say. And now I am even more eager to watch Gehraiyaan.