Double role

Anushka Sharma believes in going all out while promoting her films. Recently, during the launch of the trailer of her upcoming film, Jab Harry Met Sejal, Sharma took to the stage as Sejal, the character she plays in the film. She was accompanied by the film’s director Imtiaz Ali. Her costar, Shah Rukh Khan, who was in Los Angeles, joined the team via video conferencing. Sharma was equally hands-on while promoting her home production Phillauri, which came out in March. She interacted extensively with the media and on one occasion she even spoke to a reporter’s mother. She made good use of the digital platform through the campaign #Shashiwasthere.

After being part of the film industry for nine years, Sharma is getting into other aspects of filmmaking. Today, she has a better understanding of how the industry works. “I think the promotions encapsulate what the film [Jab Harry Met Sejal] really is like. It is a happy film with interesting characters,” says Sharma. “Somewhere we are trying to engage the people and help them connect with the characters. The promotions for Phillauri were different in terms of the medium that was used, like augmented reality and creating social media platforms that got really popular. I think every film demands [a different strategy] and as an actor you just follow that. That is what I am doing.”

Sharma is one of the youngest women producers in India, and her first film, NH10, under the banner Clean Slate Films, was highly appreciated. Phillauri was her second outing as producer. Though the film got a lukewarm response at the box-office, its concept and marketing campaign generated a good response.

Sharma decided to produce films because she wanted to support scripts that she thought were really strong. “The business of a film depends on the story you are telling and how you structure it,” she says. “At the time NH10 was being made, I could have chosen to be just an actor and it could have been well and good, right? But I realised that the film needs to have a reach and if I produce the film, it would be a lot easier for a film like that to happen. It is not a kind of film that any actor or actress would choose to produce [as his/her first film]. It is not a conventional story. But I wanted to back a project that goes with my understanding of cinema and what I think is relevant cinema. Because I produced the film, it had a far better possibility to get the finances in order.”

Navdeep Singh, who directed NH10, is working on his second project, Kaneda, with Clean Slate Films. According to Singh, the best thing about Sharma is that she puts the film above everything else. “She is fantastic and has a great sense of responsibility,” he says. “She is very mature in her decisions.” Sharma doesn’t hesitate to state her opinions which, Singh says, makes everything transparent.

Her next production, Pari, has already created a lot of interest with its posters. “I am very happy with the kind of intrigue that the poster of Pari has created, but we have a plan to talk about it at the right time. For the time being, I would like the people to keep guessing,” says Sharma about the film that is expected to hit the theatres in February.

Coming back to Jab Harry Met Sejal, Sharma had apprehensions about playing a Gujarati girl who speaks with a typical accent. But Imtiaz Ali convinced her. “When you are trying to do something different with the film, you just don’t want to look different, but also sound different,” she says. “I think Sejal is a character I have not done before. Perhaps, she is also someone I can’t connect with immediately myself. But Imtiaz helped me find the space that Sejal is in.”

Anushka with Shah Rukh Khan and director Imtiaz Ali.

Jab Harry Met Sejal could well be another love story. Sharma has done quite a few, including her debut film, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and last year’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. However, the director and writer could make the difference, she says. “Love stories, by and large, are similar in the sense that there is a boy and a girl, and some conflict that brings them together or tears them apart. But the storytelling makes the difference,” she says. “How the director sets up the scene, how he chooses to tell the story engagingly. I think that is one thing that Imtiaz has been very successful in doing. He is a director who understands the man-woman relationship deeply and has an insight that you might not have seen earlier in movies. When you watch his films, you relate to it completely. He has a deep understanding of human nature. That is why his characters are flawed, broken, but still believable.”

In fact, it was Ali’s second film, Jab We Met starring Kareena Kapoor, which planted the acting bug in Sharma, who belongs to an Army family. “My family was not into watching movies. It was more about playing, going out, swimming and other activities,” says Sharma, who was 18 when she saw Jab We Met in Bikaner. “It had a lasting impression on my mind because of the way the female character was portrayed. The role was very well-written and played out very nicely,” she says.

Sharma, who is known for being straightforward, says that there are times when she gets into trouble because of her bluntness. But she doesn’t know any other way. “For me, being straight up and honest are far easier. I like to cut the bullshit,” she says. For her, being dishonest is akin to being disrespectful. “I can sniff out superficiality and fakeness around me,” she says. “That is the way I am. That is the environment I have grown up in; things were very real. There are certain principles that I follow religiously. At the end of the day being at peace with oneself is far more important than anything else.”