DREAMING BIG

KULRAJ RANDHAWA

For actor Kulraj Randhawa from Chandigarh, the journey into films has been straight out of a movie script. The 30-year-old was studying Business Management in Bangalore and had gone to interview acting guru Kishore Namit Kapoor as part of a freelance assignment for a national daily, when her life changed completely. “I was getting film offers from the South Indian film industry even before that, but had refused as I wanted to concentrate on my studies and wasn’t sure how my family would react. He pushed me to take up acting lessons from him and even convinced my father. I arrived in Bombay and there’s been no looking back ever since,” says Randhawa. The actor, who shot to fame with the very popular soap opera Kareena-Kareena, says that television offered her tremendous exposure and she learnt a lot on the sets, something which she will value all her life. “It wasn’t just about acting but also about camera, editing and production.” Randhawa recalls she was spending 15 hours every day on TV sets for more than a year, something which exhausted her. “That’s how things were those days. Now, the working hours are more regulated.” After TV, the next step for the actor was films, and she opted for Punjabi cinema. That was the time when Punjabi films were going through a lean patch and everybody stressed that it wasn’t a great move on her part to leave successful TV shows and enter an alien territory. But Randhawa is happy that she did it, for it not only wet her feet in the grammar of cinema but also taught her how things worked on a bigger canvas. Her first Punjabi film was Mannat with Jimmy Shergill, which she says was an awesome experience. “It was something totally different from television. That’s when I realised that I had found the medium of my choice.” Now was the time for her to explore the Hindi film territory. “I started with Chintuji. It may not have done well at the box office, but it definitely gathered some great reviews. I am happy that people liked my work.” The actor, who was praised for her role in Yamla Pagla Deewana where she was cast opposite Bobby Deol, says she was thrilled to work with the Deols. “You know the kind of respect the Deols enjoy in Punjab. Of course, it wasn’t easy and there were a number of audition rounds I had to clear before I was selected for the role.”