Namrata Shirodkar talks "Bride & Prejudice"
- sify.com
She’s one of the prettiest and most underrated actresses in Bollywood. Neither pushy nor pretentious Namrata Shirodkar happily lets her heart rule her head. She speaks to Subhash K Jha on why she’s looking forward to her two forthcoming films Charas and Bride & Prejudice. How do you rate Tigmanshu Dhulia as a director?
He’s definitely one of the best directors we have. I like the way he shoots his film. His takes are very unconventional. One never knows when a shot is over with him. Each time he said ‘Cut’ I’d say, ‘Are you sure?’. I realized what he was up to only when I saw the edited footage.
Gurinder Chaddha with whom I’ve just done Bride & Prejudice is another director who has a blast on the editing table. There was a world of difference between the way films are shot in Bollywood and out there. The pre-prodiction preparation was water-tight. And since we went through so many rehearsals before going on the floors, there was no room for errors on the sets. Not surprisingly all work finished on schedule.
Interestingly I went from Charas to Bride & Prejudice. During Charas in Manali we had to waste a lot of time because of bad weather. So we can blame it on the weather. For Gurinder’s film, for a 7 a.m shoot we had to be ready with makeup at 5.30. So we had to be up at 4 a.m. Can you believe it? Though I’m known to be punctual, this was a bit too much.
How did you like playing the elder sister to Aishwarya Rai in Bride & Prejudice?
I’d definitely like to say that I’m just a year older. And please, she doesn’t call me Didi in the film. We call each other Lalita and Jaya. My co-star is Naveen Andrews. I must say he’s perfectly cast, and so are all the rest including Aishwarya, Meghna Kothari and me as the three sisters. Nadira Babbar who’s the most important character, is amazing.
How will this film help your career?
Frankly I don’t know how much of what I’ve shot will be finally retained. But whatever I’ve shot has Aishwarya and me in tandem. We share a lot of the frames. But yes, as far as the romantic interest goes the prime focus is Aishwarya and Martin Henderson. But to say that I’m not important to the plot wouldn’t be correct.
What else have you signed?
(sighs) I don’t like what I’m offered. At this stage of my career I don’t want to do anything I’ll regret later. I’m just waiting for Charas to release. I hope it works. Since ‘M’ is so lucky for Bollywood maybe Jimmy Shergil, Uday Chopra and I should change our names to Mimmy, Muday and Mamrata. Frankly Bride & Prejudice is more my film. I’m listening to scripts. But they don’t jell with me. Maybe one film a year would be enough. But it has to be the right film. I saw The Passion Of The Christ and craved to be in something like that. I’d love to play Mary Magdalene.
