FILM INTERVIEW: PRIYANKA CHOPRA

Forgive Priyanka Chopra for giving you a blank look when you do not recognize her this weekend. It is not easy portraying the life of a 65-year-old woman when one is a 20-something Bollywood actress, yet that is exactly what Piggy Chops is doing in Vishal Bhardwaj’s dark comedy and dramatic thriller, 7 Khoon Maaf, which stars John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Irrfan Khan, Naseerudin Shah, and Annu Kapoor.

 

Opening in theaters on February 18th, Ms. Chopra portrays a senior citizen-aged Susanna, despite being just 28 years old in real life. The last person to defy age on-screen was Amitabh Bachchan in 2009’s Paa.

 

The story of 7 Khoon Maaf highlights how the 65-year-old Susanna eliminates each of her seven husbands one by one. While the storyline itself was challenging enough on its own, convincingly looking like someone more than double her age was no easy task for Piggy Chops.

 

“It was a challenge that Vishal sir gave me. The transformation is very subtle. I observed the women around me and how they carried themselves in a certain age,” Ms. Chopra told the press. “There is no drastic change in my character. But the interim period of 40s and 50s, when she is not young and not so old, was the most difficult, but Vishal helped me with that.”

 

Of course, makeup, film lighting, and camera angles can do wonders for fooling the human eye, so it is definitely not a stretch to significantly alter the age of any given actor. Indeed, Hollywood audiences only need to look back barely two years ago when Brad Pitt morphed through the decades within a three-hour film in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

 

As Ms. Chopra points out, the real difficulty is not in aging on screen, but instead in accurately portraying the character’s older age so--despite the makeup, camera angles, and fiction--the movie-viewing audience believes what they are seeing on screen.

 

“Aging was not bad, but for me, understanding the psyche of my character was very difficult,” Piggy Chops said to the press. “I had to portray her in a way that everyone empathizes with her, despite the fact that she kills seven people without remorse.”

 

Ms. Chopra happens to have no remorse for playing a strong woman character in a film industry that is strongly male-dominated.

 

“I was part of Fashion, which was a great character,” Piggy Chops candidly told the press, hinting at how she is all too familiar with playing a strong female lead character. “Not just Bollywood--our society is male-dominated, but we have reached a point where the audience is ready for movies which tell a good story through characters. I am happy to be part of that process of change.”

 

Speaking of change, Ms. Chopra’s character, Susanna, endures quite a lot of change herself, what with seven different husbands over the course of her life. Piggy Chops, accordingly, has to personify such change not only in her visible aging or her subtle character developments, but also in the way she interacts with each of the actors who portray her husbands. Among those playing one of Susanna’s seven husbands are Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Russian leading man Aleksandr Dyachenko, Annu Kapoor, Nasseruddin Shah, and Vivaan Shah (Nasseruddin’s son).

 

Despite Ms. Chopra’s lack of fear in portraying strong women on screen, and Susanna’s lack of fear in disposing of her seven husbands one at a time, Piggy Chops confessed she was more than a tad nervous in acting opposite the likes of Nasseruddin Shah or Mr. Kapoor.

 

“I did a workshop with Naseerji. Before that, I had always known him as Mirza Ghalib and the hero of Chamatkaar, which is one of my favorite films,” Piggy Chops said. “I was apprehensive to work opposite actors who are institutions in themselves, but I discovered a fascinating thing with this film--that you don’t notice anything between action and cut, and that helped me.”

 

It also helped, at least for Ms. Chopra, to be closely working and patronizing with the actor (Vivaan Shah) who provided the male perspective of the story in 7 Khoon Maaf. Even more, it also helped that Vivaan Shah, who made his film debut and portrays Susanna’s youngest husband, is the son of Nasseruddin Shah, one of Bollywood’s most acclaimed actors.

 

“Acting is in his genes,” Piggy Chops informed the media of her thoughts on Vivaan Shah. “It didn’t feel like this was his first film. We hung out a lot and got to spend a lot of time together because the film is from Vivaan’s character’s point of view.”

 

Interestingly enough, from Ms. Chopra’s point of view, there is little, if anything, to be made of the paternal relationship between Nasseruddin and Vivaan.

 

“Both the actors were cast for their credibility as actors as individuals ... because they fit the character they were playing. I don’t think it has anything to do with the relationship they share in real life,” Ms. Chopra informed press. “Moreover, they don’t even cross paths in the film. But yes, it was something interesting and different.”

 

Piggy Chops hopes Bollywood audiences will find 7 Khoon Maaf interesting and different, as the film opens worldwide this weekend.