Bhumi won’t do a film till mum approves it

Bhumi Pednekar’s mother reads all her scripts, and the actor says that she really takes her mum’s word seriously

Unconventional film roles seem to be Bhumi Pednekar’s forte. From playing an overweight woman who faces issues in her married life to someone who highlights the importance of sanitation, one who finds out that her fiancé has erectile dysfunction, and now, a house help in a sexual relationship with the young man in the house, the actor can boast of a diverse body of work.

Asked if she ever worried about how her family would react to her choice of films — on taboo subjects in society — Bhumi laughs that they have have only been “more excited” each time.

“Whenever I hear the narration for a new film, I have this process back home where my mother reads all my scripts. I don’t say yes [to any project] till I get a yes from my mum. If not as much for a moral ground checking, she’s a very intelligent woman and I really take what she says seriously. So far, she has loved my work,” says Bhumi.

“Honestly, for Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (SMS), I was particularly nervous because we were speaking of a sexual topic (erectile dysfunction) and ultimately she’s my mum, so I didn’t know how she will react. But she just loved the script,” adds the actor.

Bhumi is also not the one to be insecure about screen time or fear being overshadowed by her co-stars — Ayushmann Khurrana in her debut film, Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), and SMS, and actor Akshay Kumar in Toilet: Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. “If I had that fear, I wouldn’t have taken a film like Toilet... Akshay is one of the biggest superstars in the country today and working with him only added to my experience. And with Ayushmann, it’s a great friendship that we share without any insecurity.”

Most recently, Bhumi got praised for her bold character of a house help in one of the four short films in Lust Stories. Hers was directed by Zoya Akhtar. “She’s amazing and it was such a fantastic experience. As a filmmaker, she is such an intelligent woman and she knows what she wants from the character that’s there on-screen,” says Bhumi, calling the experience of working with Zoya “liberating”.