Introducing: Amrita Puri

“If you have seen the promos of the Abhay Deol- Sonam Kapoor starrer Aisha, Read More">there is every chance that you have seen the sweet and innocent girl who mouths some really funny dialogues like “Main Bhi Toh Single Hoon Na” and “Pant Badi Ajeeb Si Pehni Hai“. Well…she is none other than Amrita Puri whoRead More

"If you have seen the promos of the Abhay Deol- Sonam Kapoor starrer Aisha, there is every chance that you have seen the sweet and innocent girl who mouths some really funny dialogues like "Main Bhi Toh Single Hoon Na" and "Pant Badi Ajeeb Si Pehni Hai". Well…she is none other than Amrita Puri who is making her debut with this chick-flick. Bollywood Hungama's Nikhil Ramsubramaniam got chatting with this pretty looking actress who has been dreaming of entering Bollywood ever since she was a small child. Read on…

Background

"I was born in Mumbai and belong to a complete non-filmy family. After my graduation in English literature, I did a one year post graduation diploma in Social communications media. Post that I thought I'll be a documentary filmmaker since I had learnt about photography, journalism etc, during my course. However, I realised its not a very high paying line so dropped that idea. I then thought of being an AD (assistant director) but after hearing about the kind of work ADs do on set, I gave that a skip too knowing it's not my cup of tea. I was always interested in creative writing and began applying to various magazines and ad agencies. Finally I got an offer from O&M which I took up."

Childhood Ambition

"Ever since I was a child, I've always wanted to act. I was involved in a lot of plays and also did semi-professional theatre right through college and even after that. As a child I used to be fascinated by actresses like Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and would be constantly aping their dance moves. I knew that I was born to act and was very upset when my dad didn't allow me to take up acting as a career. Everyone in my family was against me getting in to the world of acting and films. However, after working with O&M for a year, in spite of it being a fabulous ad agency, I somewhere realised that I wasn't happy and satisfied creatively, that's when my dad finally let me pursue my dream of acting."

Read More">My character in Aisha “I play Shefali Thakur – who is a typical ‘behenji’ from Bahadurgarh. She is your quintessential small town girl who has dreams in her eyes and is very innocent. She is seen wearing only salwar-kameez and has her hair tied in a typical choti. She only speaks in a Punjabi accentRead More

My character in Aisha

"I play Shefali Thakur - who is a typical 'behenji' from Bahadurgarh. She is your quintessential small town girl who has dreams in her eyes and is very innocent. She is seen wearing only salwar-kameez and has her hair tied in a typical choti. She only speaks in a Punjabi accent and has probably never been out of Bahadurgarh. Her sole aim in life is to get married to a nice rich Punjabi boy as she feels that her biological clock is ticking even though she is only 24. Her chacha works for Aisha's dad in the film and that's how she ends up meeting Aisha who kind of takes her under her own wings and transforms her. Shefali's character graph in the film is fabulous right from her small town days till her meeting with Aisha till the time she undergoes a complete makeover. It's like a coming of age journey for this character. What makes it funny is the conflict which arises between the world I come from and the world in which Aisha lives."

First day of shoot

"I was completely blank on the first day of shoot and didn't have a clue on how things work on a film set. The first day was a really early morning shoot. I remember getting my hair and make up done at 5 am which was something I had never ever imagined in my wildest dreams. I hadn't eaten a thing and thought I would get a break in between. I didn't know I wouldn't really get a chance to eat once my shot started. As luck would have it, my first shot was that of me eating at a restaurant. While I was initially happy that at least I would get to eat something, I was in for a shock when I was told that I was supposed to eat Chinese Chopsuey. It's probably the first time in my life that I was eating oily, saucy, Chinese Chopsuey early in the morning. By the 6th take I almost thought I'd puke. Thankfully that didn't happen and the shot was finally okayed."

First brush with the Glamour World “As soon as I got a green signal from my family, I quit my job and began my journey into the world of acting. First things first, Read More">I had to lose some weight and successfully managed that. I then had my portfolio shot and it was time for meRead More

First brush with the Glamour World

"As soon as I got a green signal from my family, I quit my job and began my journey into the world of acting. First things first, I had to lose some weight and successfully managed that. I then had my portfolio shot and it was time for me to make the rounds of various agencies and production houses. I clearly remember travelling to Versova from town everyday of the week for almost 2 years, giving auditions. That was quite a challenging phase and many a times after waiting for hours you would just get 2 mins to say your name in the audition. There were times when I wondered if I was doing the right thing but my passion for acting kept me going. I did a few print ads for Lipton, Garnier, Kingfisher Airlines etc and also managed couple of TVC's for brands like LG, Ruffles Lays' etc."

Bagging my first big break - Aisha

"Bagging Aisha was sheer destiny for me. Out of the blue, I got a message on Facebook stating that Anil Kapoor's production house is looking for fresh faces for their forthcoming film. I casually sent in my pictures and was called for an audition. I remember meeting the casting director Amita who gave me a script and asked me to rehearse it and come after a couple of days. The next time I went there I was asked to perform the scene along with Sonam Kapoor and by the grace of God; they felt that I had the innocence in my eyes which the character required. I really feel blessed as I was selected from nearly 300 girls who had auditioned for my part. Initially I was a bit sceptical about accepting the offer as it was not a lead role and required me to play a 'behenji' kind of a character but I thank God that Rhea Kapoor, Sonam, the director Rajshree Ojha put some sense in me and convinced me that it was indeed a role worth taking up."

Read More">Working with the two Kapoor girls – Sonam and Rhea “It was a great experience working with both Sonam and Rhea though they are very different from one another. Rhea was this young producer on the sets and quite a taskmaster (laughs). She was on the sets throughout the making of the film. Sonam ofRead More

Working with the two Kapoor girls - Sonam and Rhea

"It was a great experience working with both Sonam and Rhea though they are very different from one another. Rhea was this young producer on the sets and quite a taskmaster (laughs). She was on the sets throughout the making of the film. Sonam of course was playing the main role but at no point did she make me feel like an outsider. She was very warm in spite of having worked in couple of big films before this one and she knew that I was very new to this set-up. She also used to invite all of us to her van during lunch time and share her dabba with us."

Working with Abhay 'The Dude' Deol

"Abhay is a total dude. He is an absolute rock star. When my friends got to know that I am working with Abhay, they went mad. He is a complete fun guy and has no hang-ups whatsoever. Besides what is most impressive about him is the fact that he is a one-take actor."

Bonding on the sets with the whole gang

"It was a fairly large cast we had comprising of Sonam, Abhay, Lisa Hayden, Ira Dubey, Cyrus Sahukar and Arunoday Singh. So it was a lot of fun. I would always say that if you've fought with someone you always have someone else to speak to. There was a lot of girl bonding between Lisa, Ira and I. Lisa and I got along fabulously. Cyrus is hilarious. He was a complete prankster and would often have us all in splits by cracking some joke or the other. After pack up during our outdoor schedule in Rishikesh, we would all sort of chit-chat, have dinner together, play board games, gather around a bon fire and enjoy wine sessions. It was like one big picnic. In fact, all of us except Abhay and Sonam even extended our stay in Rishikesh and went camping and river rafting etc. We had a complete blast. That was a highlight for me."

Read More">Anil Kapoor- The Producer “Anil Kapoor is very encouraging. He has been very generous with his compliments for my performance. He used to come on the sets during our schedule in Mumbai and I used to love it whenever he was on sets. He has this energy that he brings along and its something that’sRead More

Anil Kapoor- The Producer

“Anil Kapoor is very encouraging. He has been very generous with his compliments for my performance. He used to come on the sets during our schedule in Mumbai and I used to love it whenever he was on sets. He has this energy that he brings along and its something that’s quite unbelievable for someone of his age. I remember there was this one shot in which I had to trip and fall and hurt myself. I was doing it with some reservations as I already had got two bruises. However, Anil Kapoor was very encouraging. He told me, “I’ll show you how to do it. You just go for the fall. Lagega to lagne do…just do it.” In fact he actually enacted the scene, tripping and falling and rolling over much to everyone’s surprise on the sets.”

Rajshree Ojha - The Director

“Rajshree Ojha is also making her debut with this film. She has earlier directed a film with Soha called Chaurahein which is yet to release so technically, Aisha happens to be her debut film. Rajshree has studied filmmaking abroad and even directed a short film which has won the Student Academy award. Aisha is completely her baby. I remember she used to behave like a school teacher with me and was very apprehensive if I would be able to pull it off. For almost a month before shoot I was strictly asked to speak only in Hindi and wear Indian clothes. She knew that I had to get the character of Shefali- the small town girl bang on to have the desired impact. She even put me through workshops, diction classes and asked me to lose some more weight to look the part. While it was quite challenging then and I felt like I was a school girl given a lot of homework, now when I look back, I feel it’s all been worth it.”

Most challenging scene

“There was this scene which we shot in Rishikesh in which I had to drown in the water. The water was freezing cold and I had to fall head down in to the water. Water used to come rushing into my nose and ears and the director would keep calling ‘Cut’ and again I had to go through the whole process. Besides for the next shot I had to dry up immediately to maintain the continuity of the scene, so here I was running up and down getting wet and then drying up. It was quite an experience.”