FILM INTERVIEW: NEHA DHUPIA

 

For Ms. Dhupia, she welcomed the challenging role of portraying the love interest of one of the most infamous men in human history.

 

“There are some characters that I have played in the past which have really made me feel attached to them. After Madhu (Ek Chalis Ki Last Local) and Sonam (Mithya), Eva is one such character,” Ms. Dhupia told the press. “Eva was someone who was quite flamboyant with Hitler’s soldiers. But behind that exterior of being happy and charming, there was a certain sadness and romanticism in her. I have become mellower after playing her.”

 

Apparently Ms. Dhupia also became a tad more knowledgeable of modern world history, as the actress had to soak up quite the copious amounts of information in order to pay proper biographical respects to a personality who actually existed.

 

“It isn’t easy to step into the shoes of such a historical personality,” Ms. Dhupia confessed to the press. “I had to go through history, pick up whatever images and footage was available, and try to get an idea of what she must have been.”

 

Of course, Ms. Dhupia hopes audiences will be as open-minded and forthright about the positive nature of Gandhi to Hitler. While many have already criticized the film for its interchanging the German and Hindi languages, Ms. Dhupia told the press that such critics are off base.

 

“We haven’t spoken German throughout the film because we didn’t feel the need to. I don’t think many minded when the uneducated, poor characters in Slumdog Millionaire spoke fluent English,” she poignantly observed in her discussion with the media. “I am not saying we should have objected to that. But then if we accepted that, there is no reason why Hitler or Eva can’t speak in Hindi. After all, once you are ten minutes into a film, language becomes rudimentary.”

 

In portraying Hitler’s lover in order to demonstrate the more personal side of the Nazi leader’s life, particularly in his final days when he spent some rather revealing moments with his girlfriend-turned-short-lived-wife, Ms. Dhupia said Gandhi to Hitler held nothing back and was anything but politically correct. She added that it was necessary for the film’s producers to stay as true to history as possible in order to drive home its point that the Third Reich and Hitler’s path to power never should have nor should ever be followed.

 

Ms. Dhupia also commends on a film such as Gandhi to Hitler existing in Bollywood, as it breaks the mold of monotonously cheesy and predictable films headlining multiplexes each week.

 

“In an industry where everyone makes a romcom the moment they have the money, hats off to my directors (and producers) who chose to take a different road,” she candidly told the press. “It is so unfair when, instead of coming out with good support for such ventures, some of us are being critical on flimsy grounds. Can we not get trapped in this mentality please?”

 

Indeed, Ms. Dhupia hopes audiences will be enamored with another mentality: one of peace and acceptance -- two virtuous ideals characterized by Mahatma Gandhi himself -- the very man who both created modern-day India and serves as the overarching basis of the Amrapali Media Vision production.

 

Accordingly, be sure to take Ms. Dhupia this weekend in Gandhi to Hitler with a keen sense of understanding of why “Gandhism” is a much more ideal form of coexistence.