DIANA PENTY:

I FELT LIKE THIS CHARACTER WOULD HELP ME TO ADD DIVERSITY TO THE LITTLE WORK I HAVE DONE SO FAR

After playing an introvert Meera in Cocktail and a super charming Happy in last year’s film Happy Bhaag Jayegi, Diana Penty has impressed the audience yet again with her character of Gayatri in her recent release, Lucknow Central.

While the actor followed her normal ritual in order to prep-up for her character, in an exclusive chat with indianexpress.com, she talked about how Nikhil Advani’s wife was a huge help to get her closer to Gayatri.

“Gayatri is an NGO worker. She deals with criminals. She has this inclination towards reformation of the criminals. I read about the role online and the importance of it. There was a lot of prep that way.”

Diana is perhaps one of those rare actors who has gone beyond the need to know her character.

In fact, she is thankful to Gayatri (her character) for getting her closer to the world of law. She quipped, “Once they (criminals) are out, they are so disconnected with the world. So, there should be vocational training to help them to cope up with the world. The NGO workers help them get education, make them learn some skills that would help them lead their lives normally. So that’s also I got to learn about.

“See, these are the things that you do not get to learn while being in the kind of job I am. So, because of this role, I got familiar with so many laws, I wasn’t aware of. And only through the way, I realised that I feel very strongly about it.”

She added how prepping up for this character has awakened a certain interest within her to contribute to the reformation of these criminals in her real life too.

“I would love to. I thought about it. It’s a great and quite a job. It can help in betterment of the society. We can help them live a good life and make them good human beings.

“We can make sure they don’t get into the same zone yet again. “So, it is a good thing to do. But yes, it is not easy. It’s not something I can wake up and get into it. There is a misconception that NGO is a job, which requires no training but that is not true. You are dealing with people who are highly sensitive and vulnerable. So, you need to have some sort of skills and training, educationally you must be backed with understanding of psychology and social studies. You should be qualified.

“So, it is a full-time job basically,” the actor answered.