EXCLUSIVE: “I kind of felt that I might get stereotyped with small town characters”- Kriti Sanon

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The year 2020 was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic which brought everything to a standstill. Cinema shoots and theatres were shut down for the larger part of the year. Amidst this, Kriti Sanon considers herself fortunate to be able to complete at least two films in the past year- Mimi and Hum Do Humare Do. The New Year began on a better note for the actress with her starting the shoot of Bachchan Pandey and followed by the announcement of her as the lead in Ganapath and Bhediya with Tiger Shroff and Varun Dhawan respectively. There have also been strong rumours of her being a part of Prabhas starrer Adipurush as well.

Recently, in an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Kriti Sanon spoke about her upcoming projects and her growth as an actor over the years. Kriti recently wrapped up the first schedule of Bachchan Pandey and has almost completed the film. Talking about her character she said, “It is a very important role and the film kind of starts with me. And my character, although she is an urban Bombay girl, she is a little tomboyish. She is a very independent, strong headed girl. She kind of takes certain decisions that not every girl would take. She is gutsy. The little flavours Farhad (Samji) has given to Myra, my character, makes her stand out.”

“I have almost completed the film and I am left with just a week of work without Akshay sir in Mumbai that I will be doing in May,” she added.

Having wrapped Bachchan Pandey, the actress has already started with Bhediya in which she will be starring alongside Varun Dhawan and will start shooting for Ganapath from June. Talking about the variety of roles coming her way, she said, “I am glad and I am fortunate that I am getting to work on projects that I always wanted. I like the fact as an actor these are all very different genres, the characters are different, so I as an actor will get to show range. Where Bachchan Pandey is an entertaining and very engaging script, Bhediya is a completely different genre, which is horror comedy which I have not done before. I can call it a monster comedy because of the wolf aspect. Ganapath is a very unique slightly fictional action flick. And as you saw the teaser and motion poster, my character has more action to her also. That's going to be a first for me and who better to do it with apart from Tiger. I am so glad that after 7 years we are doing a film together in his favourite genre and that too a first for me.”

While today the actress is getting to be a part of different genres there was a time when she feared being stereotyped, “I kind of felt that I might get stereotyped with the small town characters that I was playing. But the characters were so different that it didn't matter. I think as an actor it is very boring to be repeating yourself all the same time.”

Over her seven-year career, Kriti has seen the highs and lows of the profession and also faced failure at the box office. Talking about choosing scripts and how her process and understanding has changed over the years, the Luka Chuppi actor said, “Over time I have realised that you don't have to judge the script a 100 percent. Even if the script is 70 sometimes, by the time you start shooting it gets better always. Because we all have the tendency of reading the script and instantly saying yes or no. So I think you have to realise if the script has the potential of becoming good.”

“Also, certain scripts don't read that well, but when the director narrates it to you, it will suddenly sound a lot better and that's when you realise that this director will make it a lot better because he is seeing it differently. So yes with time and experience you kind of realise not to judge too soon to also realise whether it has the capacity to get better or not,” she added.

Kriti will next be seen on screen in the film Mimi which marks her first film as solo lead. Talking about the pressures of pulling the audience into the theatre as a solo lead, Kriti said, “When it is about your character and the story revolves around your character obviously there is more pressure because you are there in every single frame. We are in the times when it is not the actors pulling the audience into the theatre or making them watch or not watch any film. I think it's more of the ‘content is king’ at this time and that’s how it should be. They (audience) know right from the time they watch the trailer, teaser or song whether they are feeling it or not.”

“I am fortunate that Mimi's script is very strong and Laxman (Utekar) sir has shot it with so much passion and it's on a very unique subject like surrogacy. But often films with a message make us feel that it is a heavy film and it will be a serious film. It’s not. Mimi is an entertaining film which talks about something important like surrogacy which will make you laugh, cry and have you take back home something with you. It’s got a beautiful thought to it. I think when you get a film like this, you feel motivated to go all out and do whatever is required,” she added.

While she has her hands full when it comes to the movies, the actress is also open to experimenting on the OTT platforms which saw a major boost in the previous year. “I know for a fact that OTT platforms have so much competition when it comes to content. There are such great quirky out of the box content. I would like to do something slightly edgier, something that I haven't been able to do in films. Something that pushes the boundary more, something that makes me do a genre or character that is not very done,” she said.

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