No One Wants To Be Third Best: Anushka Sharma

Anushka Sharma on her struggle to learn wrestling in ‘Sultan’, the Khans, and censorship

Anushka Sharma (Photo: Twitter)

Smart and spunky, Anushka Sharma has always been her own girl. From choosing roles that helped her grow as an actor or turn producer, she is rocking it at the age of 26.

We caught up with her to discuss the business of cinema, CBFC, and why Sultan is such an important film.

Q: A lot of actors were considered for Aarfa in Sultan. Even you were apprehensive about the role. Why?

Anushka Sharma: I had no idea about who was doing the film as I was shooting for Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in London. I’ll tell you where it began for me… Adi (Aditya Chopra) called me in January and asked If I want to do Sultan. I was like, ‘What? Script suna do’. Ali (Abbas Zafar, Director) came to my house the same day for a narration. I knew that the film was being shot. Once I signed the film, I got the know about the few names that were being floated around but I don’t know much... it has nothing to do with me.

Yes, I was not sure if I’d be convincing as a wrestler. We all have a certain perception of them... we assume they have big frames. I thought so too, as I hadn’t watched much wrestling.

I thought I would be working with a disadvantage because I would need to sort of break a perception in people’s minds regarding a wrestler’s physique. After all, this is the first time we are showing wrestling in a film.

Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma in a still from Sultan

On top of it, I am playing the character of a female wrestler, which has novelty. I was like, ‘I want to do it really well.’ I researched and found out that there are different weight categories in which people wrestle. I saw some international wrestlers who are very tall like me and toned too. Finally when the teaser was out and people complimented me, I was relieved.

Then I had to learn to wrestle. It is a contact sport, so you are very close to your opponent. I started training with a guy named Khatri, and Jagdish ji taught me. I was very uncomfortable with Khatri because while the fight is on, your head is in someone’s armpit or on someone’s waist. I was hesitant. I saw myself and realized how bad I looked on screen and decided to go all out for it.

The last leg was to talk in Haryanvi in a particular accent. I used to write the dialogues phonetically in the script, so I’’d learn the lines like that. I had less than six weeks to do all of this, which was really taxing.

I would wake up in the morning to train, then would shoot the entire day in the sun, post which I’d come back to Yash Raj Studio and practise wrestling.

Q: Did you worry about the length of your role as the film would revolve around Salman?

Anushka: You know, choosing a role has nothing to do with who the star is. This is a very personal thing of how you want your career to shape up. In the last eight years, I have chosen roles which have made an impact - hopefully. They have been independent, strong women… how we all are basically. This is a conscious effort on my part. I do films because I love acting. The fame, the money I am grateful for, but that doesn’t drive me.

What drives me is that I get to play different characters and in return, I grow as a person. This is why I have chosen not to do a great number of films. I only do films which I feel are challenging in some way. The best thing about my profession is that I get to be different people in one lifetime.

Q: PK was the highest grossing film followed by Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Does that make the box office numbers for Sultan all the more exciting?

Anushka: We’d hope it happens of course. You want your film to break whatever milestones it can.

No one would say that I just want to be third best in life.

Speaking of Sultan being an Eid release, it does make a difference. I don’t know why it makes a difference, but it does. It is celebration - you get Eidi on Eid, you want to go watch a film, you get money on Diwali, you go watch a film. These are days you celebrate.

Q: You have worked with all three Khans now. What according to you differentiates them? And what is the common thread that makes them such stalwarts?

Anushka: When it comes to Salman, he is extremely spontaneous and lives for the moment. Aamir is very planned. He likes to plan the way he works, the scenes and everything. Shah Rukh is a mix of both. Their similarity lies in the fact that despite acting for so many years, the kind of respect and love they give to people is amazing. You can have a bad day, you can be irritated one day, but these three are so passionate about their fans, it is commendable.

Anushka with Aamir Khan in Pk, Shah Rukh Khan in Jab Tak Hai Jaan, and Salman in Sultan

Q: Your second film as a producer, Phillauri is also making heads turn. Is there any pressure when you financially helm a film?

Anushka: There is a responsibility but no pressure. If you feel pressurized, then don’t do it. It should come from a conviction that you want to do it and are excited about it. That is why you are an actor and pushing yourself as a producer as well. The responsibility is towards the people who have put money in. You have to return it and make sure that it is a profitable venture.

Q: As an actor and a producer, how do feel about how CBFC is tampering with films just a week before its release?

Anushka: I think it should just be certification and not censorship because according to me, that is the way to solve this.

People are intelligent enough and we are called adults for a reason. We know what we are watching when we go to the theatres. We have the power of reasoning. 

Secondly, creativity is not a thing that can be categorized into two or three types.  It is something that comes to you. So if you tell someone to not think this way or that way, you will never be able to create something. You have to give them that liberty.

No one is abusing just because they want to. For instance, when we went to Haryana to make <i>NH10</i>, every third word used was an abuse. That is normal for them, that is the way they talk. Suddenly in the film if they start talking like, “<i>Aap please baithiye yahan…chaliye baat karte hain…</i>” it is not going to be authentic. Whatever we are showing is the reality and is within reasonable restrictions we put on ourselves. But in <i>Udta Punjab</i>’s case, when CBFC gives it 87 cuts and eventually it gets passed with just one cut... really? It’s obvious this has to change.

I have not watched Udta Punjab yet, but my brother did and he told me, if we’d continued the fight, everything in NH10 would have been passed. But ours was not such a bad case as Udta Punjab.

You know, they told us, ‘Reduce the hair-pulling by 20 per cent.’ What is 20 per cent? What do you mean? If you are having a reasonable conversation with someone, you still try to understand someone’s point of view. But otherwise it’s like, ‘I don’t understand what you are saying.’

We had to push our release by a week which is not cool. But we did not let the film get diluted in any way.

Anushka Sharma with brother Karnesh Sharma

Q: You have Phillauri and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil lined up. How have they shaped up?

Anushka: The films are shaping up very well and it was a blast shooting with Karan (Johar) and Diljit (Dosanjh) for Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Phillauri respectively. Karan is anyway such a fun person to be with and to be directed by him was wonderful. Ranbir (Kapoor) and I have a great rapport and with him it is like, ‘Hey buddy! Chal picture shoot karte hain!’ I think people will like the film.

Diljit, from whatever I had watched of him in films, I thought he would be very chirpy and bubbly. But he is very shy and quiet. He doesn’t speak. But he is a very honest actor. He is a huge star in Punjab and has earned everything on his own - hats off to that!