EXCLUSIVE | Bhumi Pednekar: 'There was a time when Shah Rukh Khan's romantic films were the mass cinema but now…'

Bhumi Pednekar will complete a decade in the industry in eight days. Ever since she has made her remarkable debut, she has lost a lot of weight but gained a lot of confidence and credibility with her choices of films and the performances she has delivered. Her Sonchiriya is for the ages! She now has a film called Mere Husband Ki Biwi with Arjun Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, the actress got candid about the mad world of Muddassar Aziz, the captain of the ship, the idea of doing comedy, and her definition of mass cinema.

Edited excerpts from the interview

You are completing a decade on the 27th of this month. What’s the feeling like?

I’m honestly excited and it feels surreal and full of gratitude. I don’t think there could have been a better film to complete the circle than Mere Husband Ki Biwi.

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Harsh makes his Bollywood debut with this film. How has he performed as a first timer?

He has underplayed his character and has done really really well. His punches have landed really well. He had a great time working with us but we were really tortured (Laughs).

How did you prepare for your role since it seems like a fun film?

Lookwise, Muddassar was really clear he wants Prableen a certain way, he wants Antara with such hair, what her clothes would be because we had to be like away from each other. He felt very passionately about our looks. The film goes back and forth between the past and the present, a lot of things happen. The beauty of comedy of this sur is the writing and the meter that has to be delivered.

As far as I am concerned, the one thing the director made sure was that we do not leave that meter. This is my second film with him, and in my first film with him Pati Patni Aur Woh, I had a lot of freedom to improvise. But in this film, I was asked to stick to the line because that was the punch. That was a great learning for me also.

Muddassar Aziz’s comedies are sharp and situational and they keep you on your toes. How would you describe him as a director?

I think he’s someone who’s very collaborative. He’s a phenomenal writer and has such a flair to write and he has a flair for dialogues. He has a lot of clarity in terms of what he wants and it actually helps you, as Arjun mentioned earlier in the interview, he is a great captain. He really holds all of us together and understands the pulse of the family audience.

When I was doing Pati Patni Aur Woh, that was the first time I did a role like that. Again, Prableen is very different. The things that I’m doing in this movie, I have never done such comedy before. So I am really fortunate to have an ally like that in my life who sees that I am capable of doing newer things.

What do you feel about the mass cinema we are making today in India? Do we need to broaden the definition?

Your question I think is a great one because there was a time when the so-called mass films were the comedies and I feel the audiences are always evolving. Right now we are at that stage where action films are seen with a wider reach, I feel that will keep changing. Your romances will also come back because if you look at Shah Rukh Khan’s films, audiences literally flocked to the cinemas in massive numbers. It was the mass cinema of that time, the romantic films that he did. It’s just about time.