Interview: Lara Dutta
By: Anjelika Dandekhar
For Bollywood actress Lara Dutta, trying to tickle one’s funny bone is no laughing matter. In fact, she firmly believes comedic roles are among the hardest to do, mostly because the challenge to constantly remain fresh means constantly having to change.
“As I have worked in several comedy films, I believe reinventing yourself and being different in every comic role is the most difficult task. Even to consistently deliver is another difficulty,” Dutta told reporters this week as she promoted the upcoming release of Housefull in which she plays a starring role. “Doing comedy is fun, but it is not easy. One needs to be perfect in their timing while enacting comic sequences. The timing, the spontaneity and all must be there.”
Luckily for her, Dutta has had some practice with her comedic timing and spontaneity. Prior to being cast for Housefull opposite Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone, Dutta had built quite a solid resume of comical movies, including No Entry, Bhagam Bhag, Partner and Do Knot Disturb.
Of course, the former Miss Universe has been able to build such a solid resume because she, just like her fans, thoroughly enjoys films full of jokes and lighthearted laughs. Factoring how many of those productions were directed or produced by the finest filmmakers in Bollywood, Dutta is blessed to have made quite the name for herself as a leading comedic actress.
“My audiences like me in comedies, and even I enjoy it,” she keenly told the press. “Also, I have been flooded with those kinds of scripts. I would be a fool to turn down offers from experienced directors like David Dhawan, Priyadarsan or Sajid Khan.”
She was also fortunate to have an equally talented lot of leading funny men to work with, which helped her find her niche as a qualitatively comical actress. Among those actors who have guided her included Paresh Rawal, Boman Irani, Govinda, Arshad Warsi and Reitesh Deshmukh, with two of those actors (Irani and Deshmukh) co-starring alongside her in Housefull.
Dutta added that the most important thing she learned from her predecessors and colleagues was the importance of staying fresh and always reinventing her approach.
“All these actors inherently have a comic timing in them. They all have reinvented themselves in every character they play. It was a real task for me to match up to their standards, but after working with them, I feel I have reinvented my sense of humor,” she said. “Characters like Munnabhai or Circuit live with audiences forever. People like to see them; they want to see more of that character.”
However, as much as she loves comedic films – and her fans love her starring in them – Dutta humbly told reporters that she aspires to be more than someone who makes audiences laugh. Indeed, Dutta believes that any good thespian understands the value of challenging who they are and expanding their repertoire to include qualitative roles beyond the actor’s comfort zone.
With that mindset and understanding, Dutta added that she is totally amenable to pursuing gigs and roles outside the comedy genre.
“I would like to take a break from comedy for a while. I don’t want to stick to comedy; I want to try other roles as well,” the former Miss Universe proclaimed. “I want to be known as a versatile actor.”
Hopefully Dutta will be able to land the right roles to allow her to separate herself from the competition, but until then, audiences will have their comedic fill of the one-time beauty queen in Housefull, which opened on April 30th and is now playing worldwide.
