I Am Not an Accidental Actor: ‘Saand Ki Aankh’ Star Bhumi Pednekar

Cameraperson: Gautam Sharma
Video Editor: Veeru Krishan Mohan

Bhumi Pednekar is on a roll with multiple releases coming up. The Sonchiriya actor will be seen in Saandh Ki Aankhi alongside Taapsee Pannu, Dolly Aur Kitty Ke Chamakte Sitaar, Bala and she will soon start shooting for Karan Johar’s Takht.

Bhumi Pednekar used to work as with Yash Raj Films and she told The Quint what her audition process for her debut film Dum Laga Ke Haisha was like.

You were a casting assistant as well. Do you think there were things that you picked on when you were auditioning? And then you could crack your first audition?

Oh let me tell you, my first audition was horrible. I made those exact mistakes that I corrected people on. I was very lucky because I was exposed to so many different scripts, so many different directors. I was working with actors of different calibers. So I was constantly like… doing different things.

I wanted to be an actor since I was a child, I’m not an accidental actor. Having said that, I was very dedicated to my job. Nobody, including Shaano who’s like an elder sister to me I never told her that I want to be an actor. But I was always very confident that this will happen with me. But every time I had that thought, I was actually correcting that actor that you know why don’t you try doing it this way? Honestly, my auditioning process was four months. So, it’s not like I gave an audition and my director went, “She’s the one for the role.” He was actually very skeptical of me.

Firstly, it’s set in the ’90s and it’s a completely different time and that too ’90s Haridwar. So that there was no modernisation. And you know he was like she’s a Bombay girl and she’s inherently very Bombay and very urban how am I going to break that.It’s not just about someone’s physicality.And even physically I wasn’t where he wanted me to be, I gained like a lot of weight. So Manish and Shanoo and Adi sir had…they kind of knew that I could crack this. But Sharad wasn’t sure, he was very skeptical. He would audition me in the morning and then I would go and audition other girls for the same role. And I still did it with a lot of honesty and I am very proud of myself.

In ‘Saand Ki Aankh’ we’re seeing you and Taapsee on the silver screen, there’s no male actor. So what was the dynamic like on the set?

Fantastic. I loved it. You know, it was such great energy. I think the biggest thing is that people feel that women can’t be friends or actresses can never be friends.It’s all bullshit.You know, I had such a baller time with Taapsee. We just bonded and we are like one unit on the film.It was us against the world.You know when you’re making something special and you know it’s going to be special everyone just gives in their heart and soul.

Watch the video to find out more.