Anushka Sharma owes her production house to her experience on sets of Bombay Velvet

Days before the release of her second home production, Anshai Lal’s directorial debut Phillauri, Anushka Sharma has revealed a major catalyst that accelerated her drive to turn to production. Ironically, she attributes it to the biggest flop of her career, Anurag Kashyap’s 2015 period drama Bombay Velvet. [caption id=“attachment_3345606” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Anushka Sharma. YouTube[/caption] In an interview to film critic Anupama Chopra on Film Companion, Anushka recalls how the entire crew of Kashyap ignited her passion and love towards cinema. She was impressed by the synergy of the crew where every member was contributing effectively, in their little capacity, towards the film. She also explains the rationale behind naming her and her brother Karnesh Sharma’s production house Clean Slate Films. “It is very important not to carry any baggage from your previous film. Whether it is a failure or even a success, the next film should be started with a clean slate,” says Anushka, who claims that the failure of Bombay Velvet at the box office did not affect her performance in her next film, Ali Abbas Zafar’s sports drama Sultan. Anushka plays a friendly ghost named Shashi in Phillauri. Since she was wearing a tight harness to elevate her to a certain height during the shooting, she admits that she could not emote to her best as she could not breathe properly. Suraj Sharma, her co-star in the film, explains how breathing always helps him to emote a wide range of emotions, a trick he learnt on the sets of his debut film, Ang Lee’s adventure film Life of Pi. “Breathing is really important. You get to know how you have to breathe to convey a certain emotion and your body reacts accordingly,” says Suraj, who is keen on working in both Hindi and international cinema as he finds both equally fascinating. “There is a lot of strife in India. That is why they look forward to watching a certain kind of entertaining cinema. On the other hand, back in Hollywood, they have a preoccupation with strife so they make a different kind of cinema,” points out Suraj. Phillauri also stars Diljit Dosanjh and is slated to release on 24 March.