‘Dirty Hari is more a story-driven film’

The leading lady of the controversial film, Simrat Kaur Randhawa, opens up on why she chose to do it.

Sleaze and obscenity — these are words that are quite distinctly absent in Telugu cinema. What’s more, a popular director like MS Raju handling the project of this sort would surely raise the expectations. However, the upcoming movie Dirty Hari’s posters sparked a controversy and the film eventually ran into rough weather.

For someone like Raju who rendered memorable family entertainers with lead stars in Telugu, dabbling with the relatively new subject of romantic thriller isn’t that easy. He has chosen Simrat Kaur Randhawa, who is just two films old and has also abandoned her career midway just after her second Telugu film, as the leading lady.

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In an interview, Simrat discloses that MS Raju’s confidence and support boosted her to come back to Hyderabad and sign the project. “The script is so new. Not many might have ventured into it. A story which deals with fewer props and more of emotions. The setup is more westernised as I happen to play the character of Jasmine, a Christian girl who is bold and ambitious,” shares Simrat.

From girl-next-door…

Earlier, Simrat played the girl-next-door character in both her Telugu films — Prematho Mee Karthick and Parichayam. “I didn’t expect such clean screenwriting from the senior director who has a big generation gap with current trend and mindset.

The character is very much feminine, I should look like a citybred girl. Raju sir taught me to be a girl — how a woman sits or stands, because I am a very shy person and I grew up as a tomboy all my childhood. Raju sir kept telling me that if I can’t get into the skin of the character, I can never be a good actor. I had to leave Simrat behind and enter the shoes of Jasmine.

This should be a good break for me,” says a confident Simrat. “It’s a bold decision to accept such a film. I won’t realise the potential as an actor if I keep doing the girl-next-door kind of roles. I want to learn new things. To be an actor, you need to learn and explore new things,” she adds. After her second movie Parichayam, Simrat had decided to quit the film career as there is a lot of effort and hard work involved in the craft. “A college dropout, I was in a dilemma whether to take the showbiz seriously or resume my studies. I knew the film industry is an uncertain venture for any new entrant. But now, I feel I landed in the right project that would give me a good break,” she added.

Learning time

Simrat admits that she had a tough time rehearsing dialogues. “I used to forget dialogues frequently on the sets. Once I took 20 takes for two paragraphs of dialogues. I thought to abandon the film midway, but director taught me to hold my nerves. My family, especially my mother, supported me throughout. Dirty Hari is more of a story-driven film than what is being depicted through posters. Intimate scenes aren’t easy to be filmed. Timing, technical aspects like being alert and looking at the camera, projecting right emotions — it is quite a difficult task for actors. During picturisation of some scenes, I requested the director to not only the cinematographer and his team in. It takes so much work behind the scenes to deliver the product, and sometimes we get conscious,” she concludes.

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