Neil and Genelia - Filmfare magizine exerpts!

(Excerpts from the interview)

I had tested for Jaane Tu… before Aamir Khan Productions took over," she remembers adding, "Then a year later they were testing again and had tested more than 400 girls for the role of Aditi. And then on the day I was coming back from Chennai after a shoot I got a call from Aamir Khan Productions and they were like, 'Meet us tomorrow morning'."
She wasn't very happy with the short notice but fortunately, she decided to meet them immediately after she landed at the airport the next morning. "I was tired but we met with Aamir, Abbas Tyrewalla (director) and Aamir's wife Kiran. We were sitting down and Aamir said, 'Every film has a role meant for a particular actor.'" Little did she know that Abbas still wasn't sure and thought a newcomer would have been better in the role. He asked for another week to find someone. But Aamir turned out to be Genelia's saviour. "She fits the role," he said and then related how Juhu Chawla wasn't a newcomer when he did Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak but she was perfect for the role. "He was amazing. After that, from my very first scene he kept telling me I was good," she smiles.

It's My Life (a remake of her hit Telugu movie Bommarillu) is about a father and a son's relationship. "Possessiveness sometimes comes out of concern and respect makes you hold back a lot of things that you want to talk about. To prevent hurting your father, you'll use respect not to hurt him and say nothing. The connect with this film will be super strong. I went with my family and we were all in tears. I'm glad that I got a chance to play it again," she smiles.

Well one might reasonably assume that she is still more excited about her Shahid Kapoor film, Chance Pe Dance. "Shahid is a great guy and obviously he's like a teen sensation and we had a pretty similar start. We connect very easily and I had a great time shooting on Chance Pe Dance. It's a very sweet character," she says. And the lucky girl has also had a chance to work with hunk John Abraham in Hook Ya Crook, which is currently on hold due to John's leg injury. "The climax needs a lot of running," she clarifies. And so, I ask, how it was different working with these hotties. "Hurman, Shahid and John are all different. I'm closer to Shahid though. They're all focused and know what they're heading into and know what they want. I didn't know what I wanted then. They have their own unique ways of being involved. They have their own girl following and I enjoy seeing the girls freak out over them," she bristles. But, she does mention, that though all the boys rag her, Hurman is the 'good boy' of the lot.

For the full interview by Sailesh Ghelani pick up the Filmfare issue dated December 9, 2009

https://www.filmfare.com/articles/genelia-lucky-girl-248.html

Neil Niten Mukesh:

(Excerpts from the interview)

That day, the actor says, he found his calling. He knew he had to win the trophy and bring it back home. "I'm waiting for that day," he grins. Then he recalls the Filmfare Awards night when he was nominated for his debut film Johnny Gaddaar. The award went to Ranbir Kapoor for Saawariya. "I was heart broken. I was hoping I would win it. I had brought along my parents. It was my debut film and every child wants to get a pat on his back from his parents," he reasons. "I'm still a baby at heart when it comes to things like awards." He narrates yet another incident when his sister had got a trophy for studies in class two. "I was in KG then. But I was so upset that I hadn't got anything that I ran up on stage when she was getting her award and created such a ruckus that the principal had to give me a chocolate in front of everyone to pacify me. I had such a big smile and showed off the chocolate to my parents, see even I won something."

Yet his performance has come in for a bit of flak from the critics. They've called his dialogue delivery flat; some have said he needs to improve his skills. But Neil is unmindful of these. It doesn't irk him, he says. Quiz him further and he says challengingly, "All I have to say to them is go and deliver the dialogue better, then we'll talk. Anyone who talks about dialogue delivery, I presume has expertise in it. So I would really appreciate if the person came in front of a mike in a dubbing studio and emote with the same kind of expressions that an actor does. It's very easy to comment on someone's creativity. But it's very difficult to go out there and do it. I can comment that I didn't like that guy's singing. But try and sing one line like him. Only if I have that kind of expertise and I can do it better, can I comment on someone else. What do you expect me to do in a film like Jail? Go out there and show a variety of moods. No. You have to understand the characterisation, what emotions he's going through, what the film wants to portray. In New York, I didn't have that problem. Because New York was about this young vulnerable boy. You have to see a character within a film."

He admits candidly that the industry is taking him seriously now. "No one offered me a single film at first. No one had faith in me expect Jhamu Sugand and Sriram Raghavan. I'm glad Johnny Gaddaar happened. It was a perfect debut for me. I have come a long way from that. The industry's attitude has changed towards me. And it's overwhelming. Believe me, it takes years and years to be cemented out here. It's been only two years and four films and I feel like a nice blob of cement on that brick."

For the full interview by Anuradha Choudhary, pick up the Filmfare issue dated December 9, 2009

https://www.filmfare.com/articles/neil-nitin-mukesh-yo-247.html