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ON A DATE WITH ANUSHAK SHARMA :INTERVIEW:
I can bet my money on this: If she is fatigued in an interview, she will never betray it and if an eager, insistent clot of journos are pushed towards her, she'll somehow manage to greet each well-wisher with a fractional recalibration of body language that suggests a wordless surge of elated surprise on her part: "Oh, it's you! You're the one". To achieve this effect, Anushka must appear, at every minute, to be not only the most interesting person in the room but also the most interested. She knows it isn't easy, but does it well even at a tender age of 21 and just one film old. People walk away feeling glowy, sated and privileged. I was one of them when I recall the first time meeting her.
I always knew at the back of my head that she will be a good company on a hot Saturday afternoon. I get a call from her publicist. We are supposed to meet at the JW Marriott around 3.30pm. I enter the hotel lobby, then call her publicist who takes me to her room.
But before we are about to enter Anushka's room, I clarify, "Are you sure she isn't tired after filming?" To my surprise, the publicist answers, "She's been waiting for your arrival since long. She is excited". "Am I late?" I quiz. "No. Just in time", came the answer. The door opens and there she was standing beside the huge glass window staring down the beach from her hotel room. The room brightens up with her smile, she offers on my arrival and even though she has been working since 7 in the morning, she still looks full of life, and that's evident from what she is wearing - a pink tube top going well with her blue rugged jeans. Pink, because it resembles her illustrious smile. I greet her and gift her. "What's this?" she questions. "A surprise gift to a surprisingly beautiful date", I reply. Like all my previous dates, she too tears the gift wrap apart and appreciates the brownish coloured sea shells which she unwraps from a separate pack and places very carefully on the triangle shaped candle stand. She adds, "This will go somewhere special in my new house which I've just bought". The last thing you want as a journalist is a drive-through 'date' interview that tends to give an actress the distant cordiality of a flight stewardess, smiling but with the defences firmly in place. Not Anushka, though. She's warm and frank and happy to talk with her big smile going places. She is ambitious and cheerful, capable of glamour but also expressive of a kind of a jolting common sense. She has a strong professional ethic, which she somehow balances with her domestic life. Within minutes....the chieftain takes over and I listen.
Devansh Patel: You wake up at six, come to Marriott with a stomach pain and then dance. That's quite something…
Anushka Sharma: How do you know that I was dancing?
DP: Well, I saw Ahmed Khan strolling in the hotel lobby.
AS: But choreography isn't only associated with dancing. It can be walking too.
DP: Now that's a thakela PJ. So, the Parmeet Sethi film for which you're currently filming, is set in the 1990's, right?
AS: Who told you that?
DP: Shahid did
AS: Shahid didn't tell you that
DP: He did. I met him last week
AS: Then its fine (laughs). If he said, then I'll say. But I don't trust you. How can I trust you? (laughs)
DP: Call Shahid, text him, do whatever is possible to get the trust back girl (laughs)
AS: Ok ok. It's a very young film. It's a film which speaks of coming of age of four people and their journey. There's Veer Das and Chang too.
DP: I remember meeting you for the first time during the Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi days. You were clueless.
AS: I still don't have a clue. It's good to be clueless. Things just happen and I think you should just concentrate at the present more than think about your future. If today I've come here to dance, I'll dance. Planning doesn't work and nothing is certain.
DP: Some heavy words there girl! Anyway, moving on to something light and cheerful, can you recall your first date?
AS: In school we used to say, "Let's go to the canteen". You buy this wafer packet for two rupees. Plus, if the guy is rich, you'd get a coke to go with it too (laughs). I attended the army school.
DP: Why are all army men's daughters so beautiful? I need to figure that out.
AS: Thank you. Yeah, there are loads of them. There is a big misconception that an army man's daughters' life is like wake up at six in the morning and all. It's never like that. We are just very punctual, that's it. The most important thing which I've learnt coming from an army background, is that if I've got a task on hand, I'll finish it.
DP: I've also noticed that army men's daughters are very fluent in their English language.
AS: Really? I think it's about how you should talk to your elders when it comes to the army mentality. We are never uncomfortable voicing our opinion, because, as kids, we've attended so many army parties along with our parents that we can talk to anybody. A General would come up to us and talk too. So, we never shy away from them. We say what we want to.
DP: Do you now have time for your friends?
AS: I don't have friends in Mumbai. So even if I have free time, I don't have anyone to hang out with. My friends are out there in Bangalore. So, I take off one day and go and chill out with them.
DP: I've done a good bit of research for my date today with you on Facebook.
AS: Oh is it? And what's that?
DP: On FB, my status message read - What gift shall I buy for my date Anushka?
AS: And what were the various answers you received?
DP: Undhiyo, Dhokla and a whole lot of Gujarati food. Then someone suggested buying a Kimono for you. The best one was when someone told me - Get her a good script!
AS: (laughs) You know something, from what you've just informed me, nobody can see me beyond my character Taani from Rab Ne.
DP: And that's what people are going to perceive you as Anushka. Taani from Rab Ne, then your character from Parmeet's film once released. People walking on the Juhu beach will only see you in films all their life.
AS: Agreed. But I have no complaints about it. You don't get to play a Taani in your first film. I am proud of Rab Ne and it is just so perrrrfect!
DP: Why is a 'Date' called a 'Date'?
AS: What a stupid question.
DP: No it isn't. Tax your mind.
AS: Ok Ok, I am. I got it. It's about two people who get along well and who can talk to each other endlessly over a coffee or a meal. For me, a good conversation and like minded energy is how I describe my 'date'.
DP: Good. Almost there. But it's a date which is always remembered, which is always cherished.
AS: Hey, I never figured that out.
DP: You are a Bangalore girl. What's that one thing you feel is yours about Mumbai?
AS: I just bought a house for myself. I'm twenty one years old and have also bought two cars. I bought my first one when I was eighteen years old while I was modelling. Today I've got a house after four years. Isn't that nice?
DP: It is. But is it a bungalow?
AS: (laughs) I haven't gone that far. It's an apartment, a flat. You are asking me, as if I've purchased SRK's 'Mannat' (laughs).
DP: And how would I expect your house to be?
AS: Like a hotel, like where we are sitting in the JW Marriott. I like staying in a hotel, because it's got a phone from where you can order anything you like. My house should just be like that. A phone call away and you get what you want.
DP: You agree with me when I say that busy people are happy people?
AS: Yes. I am happy when I am busy. But you need to create a balance. If there is unbalance there is disharmony.
DP: You serious?
AS: Yes. You just can't concentrate on your professional life more than your personal life and vice versa. Sometimes, I feel really happy when I get back home and I have a cup of tea with my parents and my brother. I think balance is the key to success. The whole world is based on it.
DP: (looking right into Anushka's eyes) You are quite a talker, you Anushka?
AS: Oh my God! What am I getting into? I'm becoming a little too philosophical and I know that.
DP: No no. I am liking this. It's a very different conversation I am having on a date. Keep up your talks.
AS: I'm glad you're not complaining.
DP: What's the definition of Patriotism for you? I mean, you know it better than all of us.
AS: More than anything else. I have too much respect for them. My brother is in the Navy. People think that it's only the fathers and brothers who make sacrifices, while they are on the battlefield and all. No! Even mothers sacrifice a hell lot. While your father is posted somewhere else, it's your mother who is bringing you up.
DP: Any funny or bizarre moments that took place?
AS: Yes there are so many. But the one that is common is that when your father is posted for a year somewhere else, and he comes home after his duty, the child questions, "Yeh kaunse uncle hain" (laughs). I am more proud of the fact that I come from an army background than being just an actor. I feel like I am the second richest person in the world.
(As our Army talk takes a 'stand-at-ease' position, we shift our focus to the hot cappuccino lying silent and whispering, 'Someone please come and have me'. We grab our hands, add the brown cane sugar and sip our delicious drink. The mood became frothy now and I ask Anushka....)
DP: You like chocolate cookies?
AS: I love them and I'm going to eat yours too. This is my idea of a perfect date.
I can bet my money on this: If she is fatigued in an interview, she will never betray it and if an eager, insistent clot of journos are pushed towards her, she'll somehow manage to greet each well-wisher with a fractional recalibration of body language that suggests a wordless surge of elated surprise on her part: "Oh, it's you! You're the one". To achieve this effect, Anushka must appear, at every minute, to be not only the most interesting person in the room but also the most interested. She knows it isn't easy, but does it well even at a tender age of 21 and just one film old. People walk away feeling glowy, sated and privileged. I was one of them when I recall the first time meeting her.
I always knew at the back of my head that she will be a good company on a hot Saturday afternoon. I get a call from her publicist. We are supposed to meet at the JW Marriott around 3.30pm. I enter the hotel lobby, then call her publicist who takes me to her room.
But before we are about to enter Anushka's room, I clarify, "Are you sure she isn't tired after filming?" To my surprise, the publicist answers, "She's been waiting for your arrival since long. She is excited". "Am I late?" I quiz. "No. Just in time", came the answer. The door opens and there she was standing beside the huge glass window staring down the beach from her hotel room. The room brightens up with her smile, she offers on my arrival and even though she has been working since 7 in the morning, she still looks full of life, and that's evident from what she is wearing - a pink tube top going well with her blue rugged jeans. Pink, because it resembles her illustrious smile. I greet her and gift her. "What's this?" she questions. "A surprise gift to a surprisingly beautiful date", I reply. Like all my previous dates, she too tears the gift wrap apart and appreciates the brownish coloured sea shells which she unwraps from a separate pack and places very carefully on the triangle shaped candle stand. She adds, "This will go somewhere special in my new house which I've just bought". The last thing you want as a journalist is a drive-through 'date' interview that tends to give an actress the distant cordiality of a flight stewardess, smiling but with the defences firmly in place. Not Anushka, though. She's warm and frank and happy to talk with her big smile going places. She is ambitious and cheerful, capable of glamour but also expressive of a kind of a jolting common sense. She has a strong professional ethic, which she somehow balances with her domestic life. Within minutes....the chieftain takes over and I listen.
Devansh Patel: You wake up at six, come to Marriott with a stomach pain and then dance. That's quite something…
Anushka Sharma: How do you know that I was dancing?
DP: Well, I saw Ahmed Khan strolling in the hotel lobby.
AS: But choreography isn't only associated with dancing. It can be walking too.
DP: Now that's a thakela PJ. So, the Parmeet Sethi film for which you're currently filming, is set in the 1990's, right?
AS: Who told you that?
DP: Shahid did
AS: Shahid didn't tell you that
DP: He did. I met him last week
AS: Then its fine (laughs). If he said, then I'll say. But I don't trust you. How can I trust you? (laughs)
DP: Call Shahid, text him, do whatever is possible to get the trust back girl (laughs)
AS: Ok ok. It's a very young film. It's a film which speaks of coming of age of four people and their journey. There's Veer Das and Chang too.
DP: I remember meeting you for the first time during the Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi days. You were clueless.
AS: I still don't have a clue. It's good to be clueless. Things just happen and I think you should just concentrate at the present more than think about your future. If today I've come here to dance, I'll dance. Planning doesn't work and nothing is certain.
DP: Some heavy words there girl! Anyway, moving on to something light and cheerful, can you recall your first date?
AS: In school we used to say, "Let's go to the canteen". You buy this wafer packet for two rupees. Plus, if the guy is rich, you'd get a coke to go with it too (laughs). I attended the army school.
DP: Why are all army men's daughters so beautiful? I need to figure that out.
AS: Thank you. Yeah, there are loads of them. There is a big misconception that an army man's daughters' life is like wake up at six in the morning and all. It's never like that. We are just very punctual, that's it. The most important thing which I've learnt coming from an army background, is that if I've got a task on hand, I'll finish it.
DP: I've also noticed that army men's daughters are very fluent in their English language.
AS: Really? I think it's about how you should talk to your elders when it comes to the army mentality. We are never uncomfortable voicing our opinion, because, as kids, we've attended so many army parties along with our parents that we can talk to anybody. A General would come up to us and talk too. So, we never shy away from them. We say what we want to.
DP: Do you now have time for your friends?
AS: I don't have friends in Mumbai. So even if I have free time, I don't have anyone to hang out with. My friends are out there in Bangalore. So, I take off one day and go and chill out with them.
DP: I've done a good bit of research for my date today with you on Facebook.
AS: Oh is it? And what's that?
DP: On FB, my status message read - What gift shall I buy for my date Anushka?
AS: And what were the various answers you received?
DP: Undhiyo, Dhokla and a whole lot of Gujarati food. Then someone suggested buying a Kimono for you. The best one was when someone told me - Get her a good script!
AS: (laughs) You know something, from what you've just informed me, nobody can see me beyond my character Taani from Rab Ne.
DP: And that's what people are going to perceive you as Anushka. Taani from Rab Ne, then your character from Parmeet's film once released. People walking on the Juhu beach will only see you in films all their life.
AS: Agreed. But I have no complaints about it. You don't get to play a Taani in your first film. I am proud of Rab Ne and it is just so perrrrfect!
DP: Why is a 'Date' called a 'Date'?
AS: What a stupid question.
DP: No it isn't. Tax your mind.
AS: Ok Ok, I am. I got it. It's about two people who get along well and who can talk to each other endlessly over a coffee or a meal. For me, a good conversation and like minded energy is how I describe my 'date'.
DP: Good. Almost there. But it's a date which is always remembered, which is always cherished.
AS: Hey, I never figured that out.
DP: You are a Bangalore girl. What's that one thing you feel is yours about Mumbai?
AS: I just bought a house for myself. I'm twenty one years old and have also bought two cars. I bought my first one when I was eighteen years old while I was modelling. Today I've got a house after four years. Isn't that nice?
DP: It is. But is it a bungalow?
AS: (laughs) I haven't gone that far. It's an apartment, a flat. You are asking me, as if I've purchased SRK's 'Mannat' (laughs).
DP: And how would I expect your house to be?
AS: Like a hotel, like where we are sitting in the JW Marriott. I like staying in a hotel, because it's got a phone from where you can order anything you like. My house should just be like that. A phone call away and you get what you want.
DP: You agree with me when I say that busy people are happy people?
AS: Yes. I am happy when I am busy. But you need to create a balance. If there is unbalance there is disharmony.
DP: You serious?
AS: Yes. You just can't concentrate on your professional life more than your personal life and vice versa. Sometimes, I feel really happy when I get back home and I have a cup of tea with my parents and my brother. I think balance is the key to success. The whole world is based on it.
DP: (looking right into Anushka's eyes) You are quite a talker, you Anushka?
AS: Oh my God! What am I getting into? I'm becoming a little too philosophical and I know that.
DP: No no. I am liking this. It's a very different conversation I am having on a date. Keep up your talks.
AS: I'm glad you're not complaining.
DP: What's the definition of Patriotism for you? I mean, you know it better than all of us.
AS: More than anything else. I have too much respect for them. My brother is in the Navy. People think that it's only the fathers and brothers who make sacrifices, while they are on the battlefield and all. No! Even mothers sacrifice a hell lot. While your father is posted somewhere else, it's your mother who is bringing you up.
DP: Any funny or bizarre moments that took place?
AS: Yes there are so many. But the one that is common is that when your father is posted for a year somewhere else, and he comes home after his duty, the child questions, "Yeh kaunse uncle hain" (laughs). I am more proud of the fact that I come from an army background than being just an actor. I feel like I am the second richest person in the world.
(As our Army talk takes a 'stand-at-ease' position, we shift our focus to the hot cappuccino lying silent and whispering, 'Someone please come and have me'. We grab our hands, add the brown cane sugar and sip our delicious drink. The mood became frothy now and I ask Anushka....)
DP: You like chocolate cookies?
AS: I love them and I'm going to eat yours too. This is my idea of a perfect date.
Pati Patni Aur Panga
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
26