Bhumi in a short film again? Only if content is really dumdaar

She had a fantastic 2017 with back-to-back hits, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha followed by Shubh Mangal Saavdhan. This year, Bhumi Pednekar hasn’t had a tryst with the big screen, but she impressed fans as well as critics with her powerful outing in the anthology web film, Lust Stories. Although the actor is now busy with several feature films, it would be interesting to know if she is open to more short films. Bhumi is game for it, but with conditions applied.

“It depends. But at the end of the day, I’m a feature film actor,” she says. “Mujhe bahut maza aata hai woh dodo mahine ke liye shoot karna, crew ke saath rehna aur apne kirdaar ko six months jeena. Yeh sab mujhe bahut bada high deta hai. I feel content bahut dumdaar hone chaiye for me to do a short film again. If I get something that excites me, then maybe, I will take it up.”

The actor, who has Sonchiriya coming up for release next year, explains what made her greenlight Lust Stories. “Honestly, even vis-à-vis that film, I took a decision to accept it because I got to work with Zoya (Akhtar, filmmaker). It’s on the lines of something very successful (Bombay Talkies, 2013), besides the fact that itne saare bade directors came together for the anthology. But the medium is surely very different,” she says.

How challenging was it to play Sudha in Lust Stories, considering she hardly had any dialogues? Bhumi says, “It was definitely tough. Initially, I didn’t know how to approach the character. Jab dialogues hotein hai, toh aapke paas ek skeleton hota hai [of a character]. That gives you an idea of what ‘sur’ you will catch on to play your character. As an actor, you’re able to gauge a lot of things by the way characters talk.”

In this case, she felt as if “mujhe blank canvas diya gaya tha”, wherein she “had to amalgamate Zoya’s vision and my version in a beautiful process”.

Bhumi Pednekar