Went to Kamathipura to Get my Role in ‘Moothon’: Sobhita Dhulipala

Sobhita’s film ‘Moothon’ premiered at TIFF

(Photo: The Quint)

Sobhita Dhulipala at TIFF 2019

Sobhita Dhulipala was recently at Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of her film Moothon. She spoke to The Quint about how she landed the role in the film, her upcoming projects and how she chooses her projects.

Sobhita Dhulipala, guys, how cool is this? So I’m right now of course in Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival, and Sobhita’s film premiered here ‘The Elder One’. How’s it going?

It’s really good. Actually, I’m so happy to be here. This is the second time I’m going to any film festival. The first was Cannes. And I had this on my list for such a long time. And it’s a film that I’m immensely honoured to be a part of. It’s a small role, but it’s such an impacting film, I think. And right from the moment I read the script, I wished for it to reach as many people as possible and to see that it’s come here to Toronto, really validates my faith in it.

I want to tell you, it’s such a powerful film. It’s so interesting, specially the whole gender politics thing that the film deals with. But tell us a little about your role, specifically.

I play this prostitute, Rosie, who’s sort of like the badass of Kamathipura , and yet, I feel like in so many movies, we show prostitutes as prostitutes and forget that they see people who sweat who wash dishes and who feed their kids. So I think there is something very humane about Rosie’s character who we meet as a tough cookie. But we sort of realized that she’s probably the one who’s very nurturing. And she’s very strong, and hence very soft.

And it’s also a significant role. So even though the isn’t screen time isn’t as much but it’s a very significant role. How did you land it?

Okay, that’s a funny story. I read the script because Shashank was doing the role of Salim. I had read the script casually, and I couldn’t shake it off for three days and just blew my mind. So I reached out. I found Geetu’s number. I started hounding her to let me audition for it. And she thought she wasn’t sure if I would belong with this world. So I dressed up as a prostitute went to Kamathipura, took like a million pictures of myself got chased out of there lost a ‘chappal’. And there was this madam who picked up a giant stone to throw at me, because apparently, I was taking her business away. It was a crazy day, but I got the part

Watch the video for the full interview!

Video Editor: Ashish MacCune