Interview: Cast of 'Lafangey Parindey'

By Simran Mody, India Correspondent

Bollywood stars Neil Nitin Mukesh and Deepika Padukone met with the press in Mumbai this week to promote the latest Yash Raj Films release of Lafangey Parindey, as both actors shared some candid thoughts about the action-thriller produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Pradeep Sarkar.

A film with shades of Bollywood’s Dhoom and Hollywood’s Biker Boyz or Torque, Pradeep Sarkar’s Lafangey Parindey is apparently a production that presented creative challenges to both Deepika and Neil — challenges which both actors were ready to take on.

“The fact that I get to play such a strong character so early in my career is a huge challenge. I remember Adi (Aditya Chopra) called me up and said (he) would like to meet (me) for a movie,” Deepika stated during the press conference. “I met him and he explained that the girl is blind and everything else that had to follow. I was surprised that he offered me such a film so early in my career. It was more like a challenge that was thrown at me. Also, the offer came at such a time in my career that I was ready to take that challenge. It was also a very different kind of film. The character was very interesting, (as well as) the world that the film is set in compared to the other films I had done. So it was a challenge I had to accept.”

Neil took it one step further, opining that both he and Deepika actually met the challenge with success.

“A challenge very well lived up to,” Neil chimed in. “I have to tell her 20,000 times that she is brilliant in the film. She doesn’t realize that she set a benchmark for herself. People are definitely going to say that after seeing the film.”

Yet Neil and Deepika both hope audiences make it out to the film less for the individual challenges met but more for what they think is a flick featuring qualitative storytelling and depth of character.

“It’s a film made simply from the heart. It’s a film for people who strongly have a nice, strong heart,” Neil uttered. “It’s a beautiful story with a lot of depth and a lot of emotion. Most importantly, it’s got a lot of love.”

Deepika shared similar sentiments.

“I am not going to just say go and watch the film,” she said. “I think if you found the theatrical and the promos interesting, if you feel that this film will entertain you for a good two hours and take your mind off everything else, you should go watch it. I would definitely go watch it!”

Both actors agreed it was Pradeep who helped bring the film’s depth to the forefront, as the director’s meticulous approach to film-making allowed both Neil and Deepika to shine in front of the camera.

“(Pradeep) makes an audio board of his entire film. We would initially never understand why he would do so much detailing before the shoot. I would wonder why he made an audio board which would limit us and time our dialogues,” Neil explained. “But then that was the mistake! Not to realize even that is a way of making a film and was very important. We instantly understood the entire film — our characters with so much depth! We actually lived the film before we shot it.”

Again, Deepika echoed Neil’s thoughts, piggybacking upon his words and further explaining how and why Pradeep’s approach to filming, while unclear at first, actually has substantive value.

“For a good six months, we lived our characters. We started our readings, we knew our dialogue by heart, we knew which scenes came after which scene…” Deepika emphatically stated. “That was only because of (Pradeep)’s way of shooting that helped us so much! We used to crib on those days because sometimes (Pradeep) even made us dub without shooting scenes! We would spend the whole day with him at his office, basically, but we understand now that it was needed because we needed to get used to the language. At the end of the day, Lafangey Parindey is set in a different world after all.”

At least for Deepika, the depth of her character, Pinky, is essential to the development of the film’s storyline, especially since many productions helmed by Pradeep are very female-oriented.

“Pinky’s character is a girl who is very modern. The way she thinks, the kind of ambitions, and her personality are like girls today,” she said. “Pinky wants so much from life — she wants to get out of the world she lives in, so it was very similar to the girls of today. But I have to say that playing blind and being a skater was definitely the most challenging part.”

With the on-set challenges finally met, the next test is to await the box office results from this weekend and next. Will audiences agree with everything Deepika and Neil said? Or will Lafangey Parindey be a disappointment? By weekend’s end, the answer will be revealed, but in the meantime, both Deepika and Neil believe they have done all they could to make Lafangey Parindey as qualitatively entertaining as possible.

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