Actress Pooja Gor, who was recently seen in Raj & DK’s Guns and Gulaabs, gets candid with The Pioneer about working in the project, her transition from the TV industry, and more.
Tejal Sinha
Riding high on the success with her projects, Pooja Gor has been making a mark of her own. Not only has she been making the right noise with her lead roles like Mann ki Aawaz Pratigya, or as a host in Savdhaan India, to bringing out a remarkable performance with being a supportive role in the much acclaimed Guns and Gulaabs. Today, looking back at her journey, she feels really fortunate to have had opportunities to explore different roles and mediums over the years.
Guns & Gulaabs, Raj and DK’s latest series has wowed audiences with its seamless blend of crime, comedy, and romance. Almost every character in the series has left their imprint, and so has it been with Pooja too. And she’s completely thrilled with the kind of responses that she’s received. “The response has been heartening. It feels amazing when your work is well received. Appreciation certainly has the power to push you to do even better and that is what I want to keep doing,” shares the actress for whom the prime reason to say yes to the project was ‘Raj & DK’. Having wished to always work with them and when the opportunity presented itself, “I wasn’t going to let it slide. Besides that, having a good storyline and a stellar star cast certainly added to the reasons.”
She plays the role of a mother who sacrifices her goals for her husband(played by Dulquer Salmaan). Sharing of the references he took while playing it from a 90’s era perspective, she shares, “A mother who sacrifices her goals to prioritise her family is an example found in all our homes. I did not have to go far and wide for that. I have seen my mother, my aunts, and my grandmother do the same. As far as the references for playing a character set in the 90’s era were concerned- the beautiful costumes, the art direction & the way the character was written helped a great deal in grasping it. Besides that, music helped. Also, I am a 90’s kid. I had all the nostalgia to draw from.” Working with the heartthrob himself, she says it was easy to work with him, and someone who has been kind to everyone around him. “There are two things I hope to have in all my co-actors are that they are a good person & a good actor. There is a beautiful proverb in Hindi- ‘Boond Boond se sagar bharta hai’ which loosely translates to ‘Drop by drop fills the ocean’. Everybody counts. I am delighted that these days there are multiple projects being made in the ensemble format. This gives the writers & makers more freedom to explore the story in many different plots & subplots.”
Another aspect that we get to see with Guns and Gulaabs is black comedy, and bringing a black comedy crime thriller, and that too from the 90’s, could be pretty challenging isn’t it? Especially for her to adapt! But guess what, the challenge for her was actually to contain my excitement after knowing the plot line of the show. “I had been wanting to explore different genres. This was just the combination I was looking for. My process of adapting the character starts from reading all the material given by the makers, understanding it, researching more on it if required, and practicing the lines of the character a couple of times to get the right ‘sur’(tone).”
Offlate, she’s been away from the small screen after Mann Ki Awaaz Pratigya 2 went off the air. So has it been a conscious choice of hers, and would want to devote her time to a new medium? Well, for her TV is home. “I will always be ready to be a part of a good show on TV if it aligns with my interest. Which hasn’t happened after Pratigya 2. Just a couple of months after Pratigya 2 ended, I started shooting for Guns and Gulaabs. Along with that my YouTube series Pyar ka Punch for YT channel ‘Shitty Ideas Trending’ aka SIT keeps me occupied to date. Having said that, If I do come across something exciting on TV, I would be open to that commitment as well.”
Having done one big screen project, Kedarnath, and post that we haven’t seen her in films. If you feel there’s a bias when it comes to casting TV actors in films, and that could be a reason? Then she says, “There are many factors that come into play when it comes to casting an actor. I don’t know if having a TV background was ever a deciding factor for when it came to casting me for a project. So I can’t say. All I know is to give your best and leave the rest. I was fortunate that I got an opportunity to work with Abhishek Kapoor Sir on Kedarnath and I am definitely open to exploring opportunities in Bollywood as and when they arise.”
“Apart from the technical aspects of shooting, the process of preparing and performing for a project is quite similar for an actor,” she says adding, “OTT has created new opportunities, not just for actors, but for technicians as well. There is room for experimental content in several genres. And since OTT is not as regulated as other formats, there is a lot of creative freedom for directors as well as actors to experiment with mature themes as well as make content for niche audiences. This makes OTT an exciting space to dabble into at the moment.”
Pooja, who is currently shooting for yet another Netflix original show called Flight into Fear directed by Anubhav Sinha, alongside Vijay Varma, also dismissed the rumours of her getting into the recent Bigg Boss OTT 2, and said, “I do not know how my name reached the final list. Those were definitely rumours. As far as participating is concerned, I am not sure about Big Boss. I haven’t given much thought to it.”
