The Perfect Wife brings Poonam Dhillon to Dubai Ahead of her
Play in the city Poonam Dhillon tells City Times her thoughts on whether women can really do it all and how theatre is a pure form of acting.
neha@khaleejtimes.com
Yesteryear Bollywood star Poonam Dhillon has had a career graph most would envy. Winning the Miss Young India title as a 15-year-old opened doors to modeling; her beautiful face splashed on magazine covers also landed her a role in Trishul. Then came Noorie in 1979, which made her a star overnight. Some of her most iconic roles were in movies like Yeh Vaada Raha (1982), Naam (1986), Judaai (1997) and more. With 10 years of theatre experience behind her Dhillon is now bringing her play The Perfect Wife to Dubai to enthrall audiences with her onstage charisma and talent.
The Perfect Wife is about the skirmishes between a husband and wife, who belong to two different cultures of India. The satirical play that also stars Suraj Thapar shows how a woman can be both a homemaker as well as a career woman. We interviewed the veteran actress ahead of her visit to the city to get an insight about the play. wanted to train myself a little more and be better equipped to handle all the requirements which the film industry has like voice, language, dancing and all of that.
I was very shy and unexposed because I had gone to an all-girls convent school. So I would say I was very inhibited in the initial years. I think if I had known I was going to make a career in films I would have done more theatre and taken part in plays.
How has your experience doing theatre been like?
I sometimes joke about how normally people do theatre and then struggle and come into television and then struggle to achieve movies and I’ve kind of done things in reverse; I did movies first and then I wanted to change my lifestyle. With movies you have absolutely no time boundaries; you could have a night shoot and you could be required to travel. So I started television at that time and with television I could control my timings.
I wish I hadn’t left it for so long because I found it extremely gratifying and enjoyable. And because of years of experience in films and then television I found it very simple. It was just the initial hesitation of ‘How
As women we tend to be more sacrificial. So we need to draw our boundaries and ask for help when we need it.” Poonam Dhillon
will I remember 90 pages of dialogue?!’ With movies you have one page of dialogue and you have retakes but theatre has no such options. So that was just a fear in the beginning which of course after the first play I overcame and I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience.
What attracted you to The Perfect Wife?
After my first play, The Perfect Husband, people were constantly asking me, “You’ve done The Perfect Husband. Now when will you be doing The Perfect Wife?” It was initially a joke but after being asked that a couple of times I What are you most looking forward to during your Dubai visit?
I love Dubai for so many reasons! Every time I visit there’s something new to see. It keeps evolving and growing. Of course I love the restaurants there and I look forward to eating from nice places. I’m also looking forward to meeting my friends, but most of all I’m looking forward to a good show which people will enjoy. For me that is of primary importance right now.