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Sanam Re actress Yami Gautam believes that she’s come this far without the backing of a filmi background, on her own merit and not just because she’s a pretty girl. While co-star Pulkit Samrat tells us how the only critic who matters to him is his father.
Q: You’ve been shooting and promoting simultaneously. Are you good at juggling work, or do you prefer doing one thing at a time?
Yami Gautam: I think that’s what we have to learn. We have to slowly and steadily condition our mind, because life is not about what we want. I make sure that when I am on Kaabil’s sets, my attention is 100% there. When I’m off it promoting etc, then I go all out for it. What really works for me is my family being around. My mum and siblings come from Chandigarh to be with me. But while multi tasking, if I see that it is somewhere dividing my attention and is compromising the quality of my work, then it’s not worth it.
Pulkit Samrat: You know, every time I’m on set, I have a crazy time and that’s why it doesn’t feel like work ever. I don’t like going to work, I don’t like working! I want to have fun all my life and I’m lucky enough to do what I really love. I wake up in the morning, go to set and have fun. I think that’s how it should be.
Q: Both of you have worked together in Sanam Re and Junooniyat. Do you find it easier to work with an actor you’ve teamed up with before, or does it get monotonous?
Yami Gautam: It’s neither monotonous nor comfortable, even if you do two films back to back. I think if you’re good at your work, if you know your character and have a good rapport with any co-actor, you’ll get a good vibe right on the first day. It happened on the sets of Kaabil as well as Junooniyat. Right on day one, all of us were on the same page. If you don’t have to get along with someone, you do ten films together you still won’t get along. More than that, it is about being professional and playing my part right. Suhani’s part that I am playing in Junooniyat is the only part which is close to what I am in real life. I won’t say it is an extension of me, but I relate a lot with her because I don’t think before this, anyone has seen me full of energy or chirpy or dance as a matter of fact, on screen.
Pulkit Samrat: We worked on both films simultaneously. We did a lot of back and forth from the sets of Sanam Re to the sets of Junooniyat. It’s nice that there’s some comfort level that me, her and our director Vivek share. Since Sanam Re was a little intense, it was fun to come back to the sets of Junooniyat, because Suhani is a very bubbly girl. I am an army guy who has a lot of ego. So there’s a lot of give and take in the film. This is more of a celebration of love.
Q: While Bollywood obsesses over beautiful girls endorsing beauty products, there are some actors who take a strong stand against this. What is your take on this as the face of a fairness cream brand?
Yami Gautam: I don’t think I’m just a pretty girl. I’m much more. Endorsements are the part and parcel of the profession that I am in. As long as I am not endorsing anything which is carcinogenic and harmful. The career choices that I will be making would be my choices and not someone else’s. That’s not how I’ve made my career and come so far from my hometown, without a film background. Wherever I go from hereon would absolutely be based on my choices and judgement, keeping in mind the people I am working for, which is my audience and the people I am working with.
Q: Social media has made appreciation and criticism instant. Do you take it well?
Pulkit Samrat: If they don’t like something, they do have a right to tell you that, till it’s in a good light and good language. You try to pick up stuff from that and do the best that you can. That is good criticism. But personally, more than my family I don’t really care about anyone else criticising me. My father is a hardcore film buff. If you take a film’s name, my father would be able to tell the date on which it released too. He’s such a fan of films. It is interesting to have such a critical committee at home itself. Speaking of Twitter, I go through my timeline at least once a day and get a sense of who are my active followers, and who are the ones who really love me. So I really pay attention to those.
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