Actress-producer-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt, who has been no less than a strong, independent personality and most of all a role model to many, gets candid over an exclusive chat with The Pioneers Tejal Sinha as we discuss her recently released series Big Girls Don’t Cry.
TEJAL SINHA
Strong! Independent! Responsible! And most of all, an inspiration and role model! That is what Pooja Bhatt
has been to many youngsters in fact, people who have been following her ever since she made her debut, at the age of 17, with Daddy. Today, as the very accomplished actor, filmmaker, and producer that she’s been, it has been a one-of-a-kind experience for anyone to work with her.
And this week, we had the privilege to connect with her not once but coincidentally twice for an exclusive chat. Well, we were more than obliged for her time.
Though she made her debut into the filmy world with Daddy, a blockbuster hit that it was, she’s still remembered as the Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin beauty. And why not? The craze over both films has been so great that many of us have grown up hearing about her from our parents. “I’m very glad that the world has allowed me to grow up under it’s watchful gaze, from being this wild child to the rebellious Pooja Bhatt and then to this strong, independent, and responsible Pooja Bhatt,” begins the star on a brighter note.
With her very recent project, Big Girls Don’t Cry, it was no less than a kick for her to play the character of the principal of a girl’s school. Why do you wonder? Well, “I was in a girls’ school myself growing up; it was a strict Parsi school where a lot of emphasis was on value systems, no capitalistic pursuit, no authen-tication, and no display of wealth ever. We did have wealth, but I grew up in a way where we were all treated as one, and that’s what made it unique.”
And just not that, growing up in Bandra, she grew up around a different mindset, where it wasn’t about how rich you are in
terms of wealth, but as a human being, intellectually and emotionally. Thus, being a part of a series like Big Girls Don’t Cry, she goes on to reveal that over 4000 girls auditioned, and they found these 8 girls. “I was part of a show where eight girls are being launched, and one of them is also a singer. She has composed a song herself, which is so unique. All these women represent the diversity of India, the unique trait that each of us has that we bring from our own culture from our world, and what elevates is that all of us are unique and we do not have to be like the other person.”
The show, she says, has been a role model in itself, highlighting so many aspects, right from being unapologetic of their humble background, dealing with sexuality, one child dealing with the anguish of their parents marriage-breaking, and
more.
Undeniably, the eight of the girls, including the Sadak actress, believe, and so do we, in the way the characters have grappled with these issues within the show and come out of it shining.
In fact, one of the reasons we felt the show gave her a more realistic vibe during our chat was that the makers have all been to boarding schools.
Surprisingly, the shooting of the series was done at the same boarding school as Karan Kapadias in Ooty. What a nostalgic moment, isn’t it?
She felt very much at home with all the themes and the personal growth of them all. But again, explaining us more in detail, she hints at her character Anita Verma too, who carries her own flaws and pushes her pain behind. For example, the Zakhm producer recalled one of the most difficult scenes from the BGDC series:
“When I sit down and I interrogate Vidhushi’s and Ludo’s character, at a point, I told Sudhanshu, I’m going with your gut on this, and I hope I’m not being too harsh because that’s something that I, as the person handling it, would be different. But ‘Anita’ has to handle it that way.”
The series also highlights one of the important issues we’ve been through at some point in life-identity. There was also a point in the Tamanna actress’s life when she climbed the ladder of fame at a very young age, making an identity for herself. But what post that? Well, she had a different opinion about it: “I was 17 when I did my first film, and I think the world was very generous to me, the media was very generous to me; and people from the industry were very gener-ous. I was like this arc to a debutante; I was half-way descent, and Daddy was an ortho-backed role. I was at the right place, age, and time. It was not a film designed to launch me. It was written, and I happened to be 17 when I was there at the right time. My father was very clear to me. He was like, ‘Look, Pooja, I’m not going to give the world the privilege of telling you that you can’t act. If you can’t act, as your father, I will be the first to tell you that you cannot act and that this career is not for you. If I don’t, I’ll be doing you a disservice if I lie, saying you are good when you are no good, so that’s the way I’ve been brought up.”
Now, with the projects that she’s been taking up, she says she’s been very picky and selective because, for her, it’s like a ‘marriage.
“When you tie yourself to a journey like this, you are
putting everything that you have out there, and you have to kind of synergise the people you trust implicitly with the people you admire. I genuinely need to admire the minds of people with whom I synergise, and in my core value system, I need to find resonance in the material. If my value system is not aligned with the value system of the show or the film, I’ll not be part of it, and I’m very clear about it,” shares the Jism 2 pro-ducer, adding that out of the 8 girls, she felt very relatable to the character of Dia, because that’s how she was—someone who’d always be ready to start a revolution. As we headed toward the end of the chat, she revealed that she was also asked to keep her opinions to herself.
Well, if you thought this was the end of our chat, wait for some exclusive revelations we have from the star herself in our next interview coming out soon!
