She may look petite but the demure Shraddha Kapoor is quite a daredevil. From refusing to use stunt doubles, to riding a bullet and scuba diving, she’s done it all in her up coming film Ek Villain. We recently met the chirpy actor and sat her down for a chat on her equation with Sidharth Malhotra, her love for doing her own stunts and how the pressures of delivering a big hit
On working with Mohit Suri again
It’s the best thing, because after Aashiqui 2 I take it as my biggest prize that Mohit gave me his next film! We’ve become really good friends, the three of us (Aditya,Mohit and I)so that bond really helps. To come back in Ek Villain and to do a role which is so different from what I did before with him, Aarohi, who was quiet and subdued and didn’t speak very much to Aisha (my character in Ek Villain) who doesn’t stop yapping, it’s great. Our relationship evolved so much because of knowing each other and spending so much time with each other that hopefully I think people will find this also interesting.
On the pressure of delivering a super hit
I am crazy pressurized! (about delivering a hit after Aashiqui 2’s success) As I said, Aashiqui 2 came out of nowhere and became like this phenomenon of a film, with two relatively new faces. It suddenly became iconic. So yeah I think that people will expect something more now and I am a lot more nervous about this than I was for Aashiqui 2.
On Sidharth being a big influence on her
He was the new entrant in the whole Aashiqui family because the whole unit was Aashiqui 2 coming back together so he was the newbie in our group. Our first impressions of each other were very different from what they are now. We met each other at a party and I thought he was very quiet and reserved. Then we started working in Ek Villain and suddenly I see this person who is very healthy! He follows such a good diet he’s constantly having green tea on sets while I am having gulab jamuns and jalebis and chai every one hour. I was like “my god this guy is so focused!” I started copying everything that he would eat, if he would call for healthy khana I would call for it too! So he is a big influence on why I am eating healthy these days. Once you get to know Sid you realise that he has very good sense of humour.
On being a daredevil
There is one shot of me being thrown out of the window (in the trailer). In that shot I had to be harnessed up and all but I was damn happy that I had to do it because I was really wanting to. I mean these guys (Sidharth and Riteish) were doing stunts and all so I told Mohit, “C’mon!” There was a stunt-double explaining the actions to me but because my face is seen in that sequence she couldn’t be a part of it and I was very happy that they made me do it! It was an amazing adrenaline rush. I think the actresses should do their own stunts and why not! One shouldn’t under-estimate women or small people I know I am 5’5” but I rode that Bullet man!
On her version of Galliyan
Galliyan is a beautiful song, people are loving it! Mohit told me to sing the female version, he finally listened to me after Aashiqui 2 and the repeated “please let me sing!”. He called me and asked, “Chhota (my nickname Mohit addresses me by ) do you want to sing the female version of Galliyan?” and I was like “Yes!” He said, “Come to the studio; we’ll do it in 2 and a half hours.” So it was a very casual thing it wasn’t planned or anything. He just knew that I wanted to sing and then it happened. I have been training for the past few years but very inconsistently. I would train a few days with my grandfather, kabhi kuch din ek teacher ke saath, so it wasn’t like a consistent training