FILM INTERVIEW: CHITRANGADA SINGH

 

Naturally, Ms. Singh is not at all happy about such swirling rumors persisting almost eight years after the fact--especially considering she is happily married to someone else.

 

“It did upset me a lot. Sometimes I think there’s nothing much to write about me so they just find something. It probably just makes a good story, but the obvious link-ups will not happen,” Ms. Singh told the press last week. “Sudhir found me, he got me here, and there is a rapport. Everyone is entitled to his or her camp in the industry. I don’t know why, if a woman manages to have certain associations, it becomes wrong. And it’s unnecessarily putting something in our heads.”

 

Even worse, such rumored links between Mr. Mishra and Ms. Singh makes for quite awkward situations for the Hindi film star, who would rather be talking about Yeh Saali Zindagi instead of her relations with filmmakers.

 

“In my head, definitely I was feeling a bit awkward. Was there something? Why have people started thinking like this?” Ms. Singh rhetorically pondered with reporters. “I didn’t start maintaining any distance, though. Whether there is something or not, it just makes you feel uncomfortable within friend circles when people start asking certain things. It’s silly.”

 

Speaking of Yeh Saali Zindagi, the romantic thriller follows on the heels of Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji in portraying what men are willing to do to track down the women they want and love.

 

For Ms. Singh, she felt the love story was one worthy of being associated with.

 

“What struck me most was that there was not just a hero’s love story--there is a bad guy, and his love story was as beautiful as the so-called hero’s love story. The bad guy, played by Arunoday, was really weak and soft in front of his wife,” she observed to the press. “What I liked was that there was nobody extreme; nobody was too bad or too good. Even the hero, played by Irrfan, was also not a person with all goodness. He has also got an edge to it. So is the girl I play in the film--she is also not all nice. She uses guys when she wants. So everyone is in-between, and there is no good, bad, or linear kind of thing.”

 

Ms. Singh should be used to playing a not-so-nice woman, as she has portrayed as much in two other films--Sorry Bhai and Khwaishein Aisi, both 2008 releases.

 

Accordingly, Ms. Singh finds her character very relatable and easy to get into, mostly because she understands her mentality.

 

“In Hazaron…I was a three-men girl; here, I have two men … and you can very honestly say that she is very selfish about her love. Even in Sorry Bhai, I don’t say she has been selfish--she has been honest,” she informed reporters. “I absolutely identify with these characters. I relate to it because there is no emotion, which is justified if it’s demanded of you. This is the reality. So without naming it bad or good, accept the truth.”

 

Starring in her fifth film, Ms. Singh hopes to experience more truth this weekend in the form of rupees piling up at the box office as Bollywood fans fill the seats to watch Yeh Saali Zindagi. Indeed, should the cash register be ringing loudly for Ms. Singh and Mr. Mishra, all will be forgiven, and there is no need to worry what people will think of their relationship. If not, well, as the saying goes, truth hurts.