‘My body has gone through too much’

What’s your notion of a typical, ideal Bollywood debut? A big budget, glamorous film with peppy song-and-dance numbers and trendy costumes that fit a (almost always) svelte frame? But nothing of that sort happened with Bhumi Pednekar as she gained nearly 30 kilos — and subsequently lost that too — for her not-so-glamorous avatar in Dum Laga Ke Haisha (DLKH). As Bhumi rides high on the back-toback success of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (TEPK) and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (SMS), we chat with the actor about her experiences with weight, and if she would have done anything differently.

Many feel you can feature in a before and after weight loss programme...

I don’t recognise myself in DLKH. I have told people from the production house (Aditya Chopra’s company) that they should send my [before and after] pictures to a weight loss clinic. I would have no issues with that (laughs).

What was the experience like? Was it really tough?

You know, it took me three years to [gain and lose all that weight]. My body has gone through too much and [as compared to boys] girls have a different kind of body system. I am not being sexist but boys still have it easy. We carry a reproductive system, which has to be nurtured. So, I took care of myself and even battled [the weight]. I won’t gain that much weight again, that too so quickly. Maybe, I could do that later but not now.

Would you have done things differently, if given an option?

I won’t change a thing about my life including my film debut process. If someone tells me that they want me to give a ‘star kidlike launch’ — as compared to the kind of work I did in DLKH — my only reply would be, ‘I won’t do that.’ I will, any day, choose what I did, else I won’t have the kind of life experiences that I have right now. I learnt so much about myself during DLKH because it takes a lot of confidence to gain that kind of weight.

How did family and friends react?

The funniest part was that I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody [about my debut film]. So for the eight months [that I was in the process of putting on weight] people though I had gone crazy as I was constantly eating a lot. People would even come to me and ask, ‘are you depressed? Is everything okay?’ They would go to my mum asking what’s wrong with me. Even my mother was like, ‘now, how do I tell everyone what’s happening?’

PHOTO: AALOK SONI