Shraddha Kapoor is visibly excited. She hasn’t done a dance film before. She says her appearance in Ungli’s just released item song Dance Basanti is a mere lull before the ‘storm’ coming next February: ABCD 2.
She’s currently on a streak of back-to-back hits. Ask her if there’s any pressure for her upcoming films? She says, “I don’t do films thinking it could become a hit. If it has a good script, a good director and I get to surprise myself, I do it.”
The actress says ABCD 2 is a departure from her previous films, but maintains that all her roles have been different from each other. She lists her reasons for doing the film: “I wanted to do a dance film for the longest time and the films I have been part of so far, didn’t have a lot of dancing.” It has the same flavour as the first film and dance is still the main angle. The original cast is still in the sequel, she shares, adding, “Varun and I are the only additions”.
Ask her about the kind of films she’d want to be part of now and she promptly replies that she has a long list of directors she’d like to work with and that she would also love to do an action film now. “But it should not be a useless role. It should be a proper role where I get to do a lot of stunts and stuff!”, she shares.
She has finally done an item number in Ungli. She takes umbrage to calling it that, or even a dance number, but says she doesn’t mind what people want to call it. For her, “it was a good feeling to be portrayed in a different way. I was waiting to do something different on these lines for a long time and finally, I got to do it! When I heard the song, I fell in love with it. I did the song just because I wanted to dance! Dance Basanti is a chhota teaser of dancing before ABCD 2.”
Shraddha admits that Varun helped her get the role and that at his insistence she met the director Remo D’Souza and “it just happened”. Was training for the role difficult? “More than difficult, it has been liberating. I actually feel connected with myself when I am dancing”, she insists.
“Varun and I are just two faces in the film. The stars of the sequel are still the same who were in the original. But by the end of the film. we’ll be able to convince you that we’re part of that group and are also dancers. The onus is on us to match up to them, be half as good as them and really look like a team,” she says confidently, adding, “ABCD 2 has new script with new set up and new characters as well. As for me, I play Vinni, a hair stylist who loves to dance.”
Ask her who she thinks the best dancers in the industry are and pat comes the reply: “Hrithik, Shahid and Varun are amazing. I am a crazy Hrithik fan. Priyanka Chopra is a fantastic dancer, Katrina Kaif is great at it as well. I feel even Tiger Shroff and Ranveer Singh are very good dancers. Alia and Parineeti have not done proper dances so far, but I think both of them are good dancers.”
What’s next? “As of now, I am only doing ABCD 2. There is nothing confirmed after that.
