Playing an urban girl would be easier for me: Bhumi

Bhumi Pednekar’s latest role in a web movie is fetching her positive feedback. So far, the actor has portrayed characters based in the small-town milieu, be it Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015) or Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017). Her next movie, Sonchiriya, is a dacoit drama, again set in Chambal — the small town in Madhya Pradesh that was once notorious for being the nerve centre of bandit groups.

While it might look like Bhumi essays these roles effortlessly, for the actor it is definitely challenging as she has never lived in a small town. “I don’t really have a reference point for the character I am playing,” she says, adding, “As an actor, it’s my job to enact the role to the best of my ability and I am just being true to that. There is no formula or math behind the kind of roles I enact... I get these stories... I think people have had that connect with me and the films. My first film sort of set the path for me... God has been kind; let me put it that way.”

She pulls off these characters with so much ease that many find it hard to believe that Bhumi is a Mumbai mulgi (girl). “In fact, until very recently, people even from within the fraternity were pleasantly surprised when they met me... I take it as a compliment that I have convinced them,” says the actor, who now hopes to portray a modern girl. “If I am given a role where I am just playing an urban character, I think I will do it with equal ease. I want to do every kind of role. I want to keep challenging myself, so the more the merrier. Playing an urban girl would be easier for me, it wouldn’t be so much work for I know this world, but when I am playing a girl who is from Mathura or Rishikesh in the ‘90s, or in my next film, I am nothing like that. Now, I am waiting for Sonchiriya [to release]. I am glad I got to work with Abhishek Chaubey (director). I have been a big fan of his work.”

PHOTO: RAHUL JHANGIANI