Love Celebrating My Flaws on Screen: Bhumi on ‘Sonchiriya’

The trailer for upcoming film Sonchiriya has been lauded for its grittiness and for bringing back the story of dacoits – a genre Bollywood has almost forgotten. The Quint caught up with the leads of the film, Sushant Singh Rajput and Bhumi Pednekar, as they got candid about the difficulties of making the film, getting into character and more.

When quizzed about the story of the film Bhumi said,

“When we think of Chambal, it is definitely a very harsh, lawless land. But there are such amazing stories of spirit and of courage over there and that’s why I think [director Abhishek] Chaubey also chose this story. This is not a biopic on dacoits – this is just a human story of what the consequences of revenge can be. It’s an action-packed revenge drama.”

Bhumi Pednekar, Actor

The conditions while shooting were very tough, from sweltering temperatures to washrooms being far away, but the cast isn’t complaining. “When we say it was hard, it has to do vis a vis right now. Like right now there is a room, there is an AC and we can be here. It’s not that we can’t be there. Not to take away from the fact that it of course it was challenging, but we are actors and that is challenging. We thought about those challenges and then decided to be an actor and now we are good and we are getting paid for it. It’s not negotiable,” said Sushant Singh Rajput.

Bhumi added that all the physical constraints on set helped them get into character better.

When asked about her role, which is more grit than glam, Bhumi said, “I love celebrating my flaws in front of the camera. I am the most comfortable doing that and I feel as actors today, you have a lot of avenues to show people your glamorous and your non-glamorous side or whatever. It is very challenging for me to play a girl who is so away from me.”

Sonchiriya is directed by Abhishek Chaubey and also stars Manoj Bajpayee and Ashutosh Rana. It is slated to release on 1 March.