When Shazahn Padmasee received a call from Madhur Bhandarkar’s office for a role in ‘Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji’, she was more than excited. Because Madhur Bhandarkar had told her that he had found his June Pinto in her.
“It was indeed a great experience to know the other side to Madhur Bhandarkar; he has an amazing sense of humour. He is known for making films based on real life stories, but this time, he has taken up comedy as his genre,” says Shazahn.
This is the first film for which she was chosen without a screen test.
Shazahn made her debut in Shimit Amin’s ‘Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year’ in a “not so significant role,” as she puts it. But she adds that she has got “amazingly good feedback,” from ‘Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji’. “I knew it was going to work because it is one of those films that you can sit back and laugh through,” she says.
Her take on the ‘A’ certification from the Censor Board?
“I think critics need to understand that the kind of language that has been used in this film is what we speak in reality. What about the portrayal of violence, bloodshed and gore in films, which are accepted without any qualms?” she hits back.
Shazahn is better known among Tamil audiences as Anu, her character in her first Tamil film – ‘Kanimozhi’, which released last year. She debuted in Telugu with ‘Orange’.
“It was a very challenging project for me, as we were shooting during the peak of summer. But I got good feedback for my performance in the film,” she says. Though she has not signed any Tamil film after ‘Kanimozhi’, she is considering a couple of Telugu offers.
Shazahn could not meet the rest of the cast of ‘Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji’ – Shruti Haasan, Shraddha Das, Emraan Hashmi and Omi Vaidya - during the shoot, as the schedules were different. But she did get together with them for promotions. The only person she met on set was Ajay Devgn. “It was an honour sharing screen space with Ajay," she says.