It’s 2 am and Priyanka Chopra is exhausted after a film shoot. But that doesn’t stop her from sitting down to a promised interview with Consulting Editor Anna MM Vetticad about films, rumours, body doubles and why she’s not apologetic about ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’:
Do you beat up Shah Rukh Khan in ‘Don 2’?
Well, I got to beat him up in ‘Don 1’ so I can’t give it up in ‘Don 2’!
Now that you have some distance from ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’(SKM), do you understand the response it received?
We always knew it could be difficult to comprehend. Black comedy is an unexplored genre in India. But we are unapologetic because we always knew this was the film we were going to make. We knew people would either love it or hate it. I’m proud of being a part of SKM. I was heart-broken by the response as a whole, though I was grateful I got a great response as an actor. Maybe SKM was ahead of its time, maybe people didn’t understand it because it was very intelligent.
The make-up in SKM looked like a lot of brown paint slapped on your face, but below that we could see youthful skin.. .
But Indian women don’t age so dramatically or become that wrinkly. The oldest age that Susanna had in the film was 60. She didn’t become 80! Women in their 50s and 60s today are very well-maintained. And we wanted to keep the ageing process subtle. Besides, we got the best in the business to do the make-up for SKM. They’ve done ‘Benjamin Button’ and ‘Lord of The Rings’. We couldn’t have got anyone better.
When you take off your blouse in SKM, we see a real woman’s body — a nice one but not a gym-toned movie-star body. Weren’t you afraid to do that?
I wouldn’t have done SKM if I was afraid of anything in it. I wanted it to look like a well-maintained 55-year-old woman’s body. I’ve never auditioned as many women’s backs as I have for that scene — I wanted my body double’s back to be just right, those folds to show. I had to get a body double, because if I had done it, it would have looked like the back of a woman in her 20s. If I’m playing a 50 year old woman, I should look like one. If I start holding back, the audience will see it.
Were the income-tax raids on your residence embarrassing?
The raids were not embarrassing, what was written about them was. It made me angry. I’m an unmarried girl, I have a family, I’ve made it on my own and I hold on to my dignity ferociously. If I did anything wrong, I would have the guts to stand by it. But if people say something happened when it didn’t, that’s malicious.
Are you referring to stories that Shahid was in your house when the IT people came in?
...and that he opened the door in his briefs or boxers or whatever. That’s embarrassing. Firstly, my maid always opens the door. Shahid is my neighbour. If I had called any other friend at that point they would have taken at least 20 minutes. He lives three seconds away, he was kind enough to drop by immediately,the IT people were kind enough to let him stay because my parents weren’t there. To have it written about in such a cheap manner was tacky and uncalled for.
Do you think IT department sources leaked it?
I don’t know. It’s easy to say anything about a celebrity. People will write without confirming facts because it’s juicy. I can pick on any celebrity today and say, “I toh saw her with this one over there”, and somebody will write about it, saying “a source said”. Damn easy to do that. Nobody will take responsibility. I want to know who that bloody source is. (Laughs)
Didn’t you ask your friend KJo not to imply on his show that you and Shahid are an item?
I did. But he was interviewing me as a journalist. I’ve told every journalist: you have a right to ask whatever questions you want — that’s your job, I have a right to deny whatever I want —that’s my job. (Laughs)
But nobody sees Karan as a journalist...
His show is about spice. You take it with a pinch of salt. I didn’t take it seriously. I’m glad I did the show with Shahid, I had fun evading Karan’s questions and being smart.
Isn’t your Bru ad with Shahid adding to the speculation?
We’re doing a film together, just as we were cast in the Bru commercial. My professional life has nothing to do with any speculation about my personal life. We are both actors of today’s generation, we make a great on-screen pair. So why not?
@Hit_123456 asks on Twitter: ‘Pyaar Impossible’, ‘What’s Your Raashee’, ‘Anjaana Anjaani’, ‘SKM’ — any error of judgement?
A. That’s like asking a mother if the child is bad or if she’d abandon it. None of my films is an error of judgement. I would do them all over again.
(Twitter: @annavetticad)