‘LEARNT HOW TO BEHAVE IN PUBLIC FROM AYUSHMANN’
If you’ve loved the onscreen camaraderie between Ayushmann Khurrana and Neena Gupta, be rest assured that the actors — though years apart in terms of experience — hit it off well behind the cameras, too!
The 60-year-old, who first worked with Khurrana in Badhaai Ho (2018) and most recently in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, tells us, “Ayushmann ke saath meri baat hoti rehti hain...I tell him a lot of my personal things, because I find him [to be] a very smart, intelligent guy. I have learnt a lot of things from him.”
Like? She replies, “Like how to behave yourself in public. Main kuch bhi kabhi bhi bol deti hun. So, thoda sa dhyaan se bolna, I’ve learnt that from Ayushmann. He is an amazing guy.”
For Gupta, reuniting with
Khurrana as well as Gajraj Rao for this film was a plus. “We have become like a family now. It is so good... we were always laughing and joking. Gajraj ji feels like a ghar ka banda. It was like a picnic, and was so much fun,” she gushes.
With the social stigma around homosexuality as the subject at hand, Gupta says she didn’t even realise it was a film about homosexuals when she first heard the script. “I didn’t feel it’s a taboo subject film, because it’s so funny... haste khelte pataa bhi nahin chalta aur aap itna badaa message de dete ho,” she adds.
Co-incidentally, Gupta also recently collaborated with writer-director Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, Ayushmann’s wife, for a short film. Being directed by Tahira, the actor says, was a very nice experience.
“They are both very different...Ayushmann is a jumpy and happy person, she (Tahira) is calm, soft spoken... Alag hain woh. She knew what she wanted from the actors as she had written the script herself. Tahira gave me a very sensitive, soft character,” she says.
We (Neena, Gajraj, Ayushmann) have become like a family now. It is so good...we were always laughing and joking.
NEENA GUPTA ACTOR