- R. M. Vijayakar, Special to India-West
- Jul 05, 2012
Her co-star, Abhishek Bachchan, finds her a very pleasant personality. Prachi Desai, of television, "Rock On!!" and "Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai" fame, is upbeat about her first comedy, "Bol Bachchan," also her first film with Abhishek, her first comedy and her second film with Ajay Devgn though not (as she complains!) as her romantic co-star.
Prachi is also happy that her role in "Bol Bachchan" is closer to her real age than her other more mature roles to date, and declares that she would never have dreamt of turning down such a film.
"It's a comedy circus on the sets with Rohit!" she smiles broadly in a chat with India-West. "He is strict, yet fun, calm and yet obviously someone who enjoys his work. I was the outsider, so I became the biggest victim of his and Ajay-sir's pranks!"
Her first day, she states, almost made her feel that she had landed like some alien on the wrong planet.
"Rohit's team of technicians and writers has not changed. So they are like a close-knit family that is always on the same page and instinctively know what they want from each other. I had done serious films till now, and in the first week I felt out of place. I was also the last to be signed and start shooting.
"My first shot was a sequence with Abhishek with a long line of dialogue and it needed 27 retakes as he would always somehow burst out laughing when I was saying my lines. I was really quite angry that day! It was only a few days back that he confessed that Rohit had instructed him to do so and make me laugh so that I would have to do a retake! It was as if I was a new student being ragged on her first day at college!"
About Ajay, she says, "I play his younger sister and the only girl in his company of pehelwans (wrestlers). I am educated, modern, spunky and pampered, but scared of him. Even in real life, whenever he enters a set, there is an instant hush because there's an aura about him that comes only with real stars."
Abhishek on the other hand, she says, spreads energy on the sets with his bubbly presence. "I have grown up watching both of them since I was a kid. But they are both pranksters. Once they made a unit hand put on a wig and dark glasses and pretend to be a hairstylist who was pulling my hair while combing it. I realized that something was fishy because I noticed Abhishek unnaturally hovering around ' and I chose not to react!"
The actress has been pretty choosy about her films to date, and deliberately so. "And this film was tough as an actor," she said. "Though Rohit-sir would seem to wave some invisible magic wand and make everything fabulous, my problem would be, 'How do I act in a real comedy? Should I go by the situation, be serious about what's happening to the character that's making the audience laugh, or be funny in my performance?' I have always admired Juhi Chawla-ji for her comedy."
She adds, "It was a learning experience ' there was Ajay-sir speaking wrong English in the shot, or Abhishek Bachchan mouthing hilarious lines and I had to keep a straight face in the scene that I knew would have the audience laughing away, free to do what I wanted to as well!"
Prachi is taking things easy. "I do not want to do characters twice my age. I am not in any hurry. An actor has to be ambitious, so let's just say that I am not overambitious. I liked the small cameo I did in 'Teri Meri Kahaani,' so I did the film."
Where does she see herself five years later? "I see myself having done about 25 films," she replies. "I would love to work again with Farhan Akhtar, this time as a director too, and definitely with Rohit."
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