In 2006, Ileana D’Cruz bagged the Filmfare Best Female Debut South award for her role in the Telugu drama Devadasu. Six years later, she repeated the feat with her Bollywood debut in Anurag Basu’s Barfi! and followed it up with a spate of action and romantic comedies such as Phata Poster Nikhla Hero (2013), Main Tera Hero (2014), and Happy Ending (2014), which failed to make a lasting impact on the box office. Then came Rustom (2016) and most recently she was seen in the comic caper Mubarakan this year. “You can only go with roles offered to you but the choice to do films that are completely different from each other is something I try to focus on. I am glad that after Rustom, I did Mubarakan and then Baadshaho, as it explores my range as an actor,” says D’Cruz who will be seen along with Emraan Hashmi and Ajay Devgn in the upcoming heist drama.
Royal misfit
In Baadshaho, D’Cruz plays Geetanjali — the central character around whom the story is built. Set during the Emergency, the plot of the film revolves around a royal family whose property and gold is looted by the government and Geetanjali, with the help of a bunch of thugs, struggles to get her rightful gold back: “It was the role in itself and the film in totality that appealed to me as I am playing such a layered, important and powerful role. I play a misfit who ends up becoming a hesitant queen. It is a journey of a woman with a Western upbringing who deals with hardship and her fight to get back what’s hers,” she says.
While shooting in Rajasthan, the cast and crew battled extreme weather conditions. The temperature in January when the shoot began was two degrees, and when it ended in March, was up to 38 degrees with accompanying sandstorms. But the most challenging part for the actor was to shoot in a real prison. “It was very claustrophobic, dirty and smelly. A kind of place that sucks the energy out of you but shooting in an actual location was important as it helped retain the authenticity,” says D’Cruz adding that she likes pushing the limit as an actor. “I like being thrown out of my comfort zone. Doing a film in my comfort zone would mean that I am insignificant to the story and wouldn’t have done anything to contribute to the film. So I have always done things I would have otherwise never imagined myself to do,” she emphasizes.
Role-playing
Despite being a superstar in the South, D’Cruz admits that she has had her fair share of struggles in the Hindi film industry. She says, “I was a newcomer here as doing a film like Barfi! meant catering to a different audience. You have to get used to that experience that you are starting off again in a new world. I didn’t know how it would go but I am glad that people liked my work in my first film. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Like most aspiring actors, the 28-year-old had always envisioned her Bollywood debut in a big film. D’Cruz reveals that she always wanted her debut in Bollywood to be in a a total masala film like Om Shanti Om. But Barfi! was starkly different. “When I heard the story, I took three months and sat on it. It wasn’t the kind of film I wanted as my debut and then I thought ‘will I get something like this ever again?’ The fact that it was a different story and coincidentally happened to be my Hindi film debut was why I chose it. But even [if it was] in Telugu, I would have jumped at it,” she asserts.
Making it better
Last year, D’Cruz opened up onher long-standing issues with anxiety, depression and body dysmorphic disorder, something she “deals with everyday.” What’s changed for the actor is that she now knows, “How to deal with it and that brings a sense of calm”. She adds, “Some days are good and some are bad. Initially, I didn’t know what it was and I would go through a range of emotions — the highs and lows. Now I know how to pull myself out of it and [the fact] that there’s light at the end of the tunnel makes me feel better.” She is candid when she states, “There are days when there’s no will to do anything. It’s not easy for someone in my profession because you are always meant to be in the limelight. I can’t just not turn up as I will come across as unprofessional and people won’t work with me anymore.” The actor also admits that she is “massively critical” of herself and hates watching her own shots while shooting. “Unfortunately, I have to watch my shots when I am dubbing and I hate it as I always find fault with myself. I was told to focus on self-love and I am so bad at that. When I see myself on screen, I am always looking at the bad bits and finding fault in something or the other,” she admits.