Parakh Madan, the shy girl of Star One’s Saathi Re…, has managed a big leap in her career with her lead in Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D, a spoof on repeatedly experimented film Devdas. The talent beautified, Parakh, spent few of her precious moments with us, sharing her thought on Dev D, unveiling her true being and a little more…Q. What's Dev D all about?
A. Dev D, as the name suggests, is the short form of Devdas and it's a modern take on the classic love story of Devdas. I won’t say it is completely similar to Devdas, but then the basic story line and the basic characterization is the same.
Adding to that, there are other modern elements like the character I play in the film, which was never there in the original Devdas. Basically you can call it a new and modern version of Devdas.
Q. Making a spoof is a common practice in Hollywood. Do you think this formula can work in Bollywood too?
A. Today, in Bollywood, no one can predict whether a spoof or re-make will work or not. It completely depends on how you treat your story, how real you can make it and ultimately how well you can connect your story with your audiences.
Q. Your character in the movie…
A. I am playing a character called Rassika which is a new character in the modern version of Devdas. This character was not there in the original Devdas. It’s Anurag Kashyap`s visualization.
I portray the role of today’s girl who has been born and brought up in city and hence has a completely modern outlook towards life. She is neither a sati-savitri nor a vamp.
Q. Do the characters of Paro and Chandramukhi exist in this film?
A. Yes, they do, but in the modern version they are not exactly Paro and Chandramukhi.
Q. How it's been working with your co-star Abhay Deol?
A. Oh! Working with Abhay was amazing. I mean, I have my own apprehension because Abhay is four or five films senior.
You also know the family he comes from and has quiet a good knowledge of how cinema and its industry work. Whereas, I have done only one film, Jai Santoshi Maa.
Apart from that, I don’t have any filmy background, also, so in the start I was obviously a little apprehensive. But Abhay and our director, Anurag, were really sweet and they made me very comfortable.
Q. After portraying a role of a homely girl in your debut serial Saathi Re…, do you think people would accept you portraying this modern girl's character?
A. See, even when I started with Saathi Re… this was what many people thought of because I was never a sati-savitri in real life. I was not the ideal Indianised bahu, also.
But then it is basically the way you carry out yourself, the way you look and how much you believe in the character and eventually people accepts you in that particular role.
Yes, I do understand that it's a completely different avtar of what I have portrayed on television. So, it is an experiment and all I can hope is that people accept and like it. It took a lot of hard work and guts to portray the character of Rassika.
Q. How did you bag this film?
A. We had a normal audition and then I got a call the very next day from Anurag. He said that he wanted to meet me.
I went to his office where he informed that my audition was good and he would forward my name to the producer of UTV. The next day the UTV personal called me and said that I am on for the project.
Q. Any interesting incident on the sets of Dev D that you would like to recall?
A. There was a love making scene between Abhay and me. But the place where we were shooting was really stinking of shit. It was in a poultry farm and all that we could smell was the chicken shit.
Frankly, it was the slinkiest place I have ever been to. The last thing that we had in our mind was the love making scene and we had to shoot it somehow.
But that is Anurag who is always up for real locations. He will not put an ideal setting where there will be balloons, clouds and things like that.
Q. You have had the opportunity of working for both big and small screens. How would you differentiate between the two mediums?
A. They are completely different mediums. I mean, television is always short of time because you need a bank of episodes for which one has to work day and night everyday with no rest and under lot of pressure.
A film, on the other hand, is completely different. But at the same time I won’t say there is no pressure at all in films.
The pressure does exist in films, too, but it’s not that much as you do have time in hand. So, you can concentrate on your work.
Q. What do you like to do in your free time?
A. I am a kathak dancer, so I keep myself busy with dancing. Apart from that I like to read also.
Q. Which are the other projects you are working on?
A. As of now I have a new television show called Kis Desh Main Hai Mera Dil with Balaji. Let’s see when the track starts. Apart from that I have not taken any other projects. - Sabir Rahman