SHIKHA DUGGAL
The fledgling actress is so much in the news at these times. Anjali Anand, of Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani fame, has achieved the status of entering the hundred-crore club. She was a part of Karan Johar’s signature space as one of the main supporting cast members and went against the entrenched cancel culture in our society. There are paragraphs on fat shaming, which, unfortunately, our interviewee has also been singled out for in her real life. But substantially, the actress has created a wholesome and entertaining experience for us. Many of us have binge-watched her movie twice!
On that account, let’s begin our exclusive interaction with Bell Bottom fame as well. She said, “The famous casting director Shanoo approached me — Karan Johar was despairingly hunting for Gayatri but couldn’t find her until he spotted me. The DHARMA team was resolute in casting me; I am so grateful to your team. But when she asked me for my pictures, I thought the game was over because my social media is not charismatic or professional at all; it’s very playful. That’s not me! Nevertheless, Karan still loved the way I looked. The casting director was with me throughout; she had come over when I was supposed to give a virtual audition to Karan. She was handling my make-up, hair, and what I was wearing — like everything.”
She knew nobody from Dharma Productions; the film fraternity didn’t know that she existed until this movie turned out to be a blockbuster hit. People are calling her an influencer, but hey, she claimed she is not an influencer. She doesn’t escalate body
positivity for business, just living her life. Through that, she would like to inspire others and not by way of becoming a paid influencer. She was still looking for a job in the pandemic! She is very old-school, even if she is an actress she is not so much of an outgoing person. If she wasn’t an actress, I wouldn’t even love to have a smartphone. She is so okay with a flip phone and not even kidding! But, for the past one month she is just on social media attributable to the adulation this movie has given her. Her friends find it so frustrating, sometimes! This is such a contradicting personality to her. Having said that, she still says social media should not be a criterion for them to get cast in a movie. Actors and influencers will always be dissimilar! She lost so many jobs to an influencer, just because they had social traction. And, producers are dying for brand marketing! But you can’t replace an actor, c’mon. She is in this industry for so long and she can’t show her work profile every day like them, professed Anjali.
“I am a very instinctive and intuitive actress. I like to understand movies like a book! I absolutely love this profession. A lot of give and take was happening between Ranveer and myself — we love improvising. There are so many more hilarious scenes that couldn’t make it for the time crunch we were facing. I never emphasised landing those jokes right, went with the flow. It was difficult to be funny on-screen! The Randhawa family was invited over to the Karan Johar’s den and all of us met for the first time. Ranveer started binge-watching those south-Delhi shows and all of us joined in,” added the television actress too.
Since the beginning of her childhood, her father has inculcated culture positivity in her. For him, every worshipping place was one and the same! That’s why the actress notices a person’s vibe, not his or her culture. So in reference to the film — she sees eye to eye over the cultural prejudices forming the story. Even in her real life, she cannot let anyone do wrong to her or to others before her eyes no matter even if he or she is older to her. Alia performs the same in the film, and all of them are in sympathy. Her happiness is above everybody else’s! She continued, “When we shot for Dhindora Baja Re song — I had just recovered from coronavirus. Even people on set were suffering! Most of them couldn’t make it as per the schedule. The shoot started to get delayed. It was the biggest song of the film and it’s was Karan Johar’s vision to go all red. Then the song was choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant and let me tell you she’s so exalted and lauded every time she comes up with a hook step on any set. Her assistant is an extremely close friend to me, so we reconnected on this movie set. I wasn’t supposed to be a part of this song but Karan fulfilled my wishes. He’s very altruistic in his nature, he wanted me to have this experience of being in a Dharma movie. So when he approached Vaibhavi ma’am, she was taken aback because Alia and Ranveer were ready to go for the take! She basically didn’t want me to screw up the song that included hundreds of background dancers. And then someone told me how the choreographer called me that “one take ladki” so I was glad.”
Sharing a little story about her latest stint in Khatron Ke Khiladi, Anjali expressed, “I didn’t have any fears that I had to overcome in the show. I have no phobias! The only fear I have is the fear of my mother (she laughed out loud). Dude, I am scared of my mom! I wasn’t scared of any of the creatures that we had to perform tasks with in the show. The pressure that was coming in was actually the worsening weather conditions! It was difficult to perform water stunts in freezing weather. There were only a few television and web audiences that knew me, but because of the movie, now the whole world knows me. Real adulation! But it doesn’t mean anything if I don’t bag bigger parts in the upcoming movies.”
