I play the leading lady in Arjun Rampal's latest production, 'Daddy'. It's a very bold, performance-oriented role, and the team had originally cast someone else. However, when Arjun saw my performance in 'Kaaka Muttai,' he roped me in.
I would have loved to play Arjun Rampal's role in 'Rock On!'
I’ve always had a big crush on Arjun Rampal. He’s so damn good looking
I feel very confident and empowered before the camera, after working with Arjun Rampal.
'Daddy' is an amazing Bollywood debut for me. I don't play a typical Bollywood heroine. It's a performance-oriented role.
Arjun Rampal is one of the best co-stars I've ever worked with.
In 2010 I had signed three big banner films with actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, Arjun Rampal. Directors like Ken Ghosh, Bela Bhansali signed me and I had got my signing amounts but those films did not take off at all.
Denzel had made it apparent that he wanted me to bring my own interpretation of 'Cory'. I was definitely aware of Courtney B. Vance's performance in the original production, as well as that of Chris Chalk, who performed the role onstage with my cast back in 2010.
When I signed 'Kaaka Muttai,' a lot of directors told me that I shouldn't be doing the role of a mother so early in my career. But I went ahead, as I aspire to do challenging roles.
When I did 'Kaaka Muttai,' I was a very raw actor. Director Manikandan brought out the best in me.
After a while, Godard was going to do 'A Woman is a Woman' with Sami Frey and another actress in the leading lady part but they couldn't do it and so he had to find somebody else. I was not supposed to play the lead in it in the beginning - I originally had one of the smaller parts.
Arjun is very close to my heart, and even the audiences associate me with the character.
When I was shooting for 'Mahabharat,' in those one or one and a half years, I didn't live my life. I was living as Arjun. Not even one single day I was Shaheer. But that paid off very well, as everyone loved my role.
Not everything, always, is about your performance. It's about the team performance. When the team is not playing well, then normally, you will not play well. It's all about the team.
I made my performance debut in New York City downtown on the Lower East Side in college doing awkward performance art as a go-go dancer at Lady Starlight's Party. And I never thought that my love for mediocre performance art and bad mime would ever come to use in my career as an actor. But my fantasies came true and I got to play Maureen in Rent.
I had to do a lot of preparation for 'Kaaka Muttai.' I had to literally spend every night and morning in the slums, observing the life of people there, and work on my diction.
I had a temper problem even before I did this film, but doing 'Arjun Reddy' has made me more impatient.