A news report published in Gulf News triggered the idea of the Bollywood film Dolly Ki Doli, revealed the film’s debutant director Abhishek Dogra at a press meet Wednesday afternoon ahead of an invite-only Dubai premiere of the film.
“I read an incident in the paper [in Dubai], Gulf News. There was this con woman in Kerala who robbed 14-15 men by marrying them. But that’s about the only research we did on the concept. Other than that the writer Umashankar Singh and I created the characters and based the story in North India instead”.
The team, led by producer Arbaaz Khan, included co-producer and Khan’s wife Malaika Arora-Khan, Dogra, lead actors Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Pulkit Samrat and Varun Sharma, and singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
“After Dabangg 2 I was looking for some scripts and I accidentally happened to meet Abhishek Dogra and a co-star of his. They narrated the script to me and by the time the narration was over I’d made up my mind that I will make this film,” Khan explained how the film came to be made. “Then, we had a wishlist for an appropriate cast and they are all sitting here. They’ve all done an excellent job”.
Unlike the 15 in the real story, Kapoor is the “looteri dulhan” [looting bride] who cons three men played by Rao, Samrat and Sharma.
Speaking of her character, Kapoor said it was “quite cool” to play a woman who breaks hearts and controls destiny of these men.
“I think it’s lovely to have, especially for a woman, to play a role like this and I’m grateful for the producers and director who thought of me for the character. I feel validated to have this role, it was so much fun to give someone the ‘babaji ka thullu’ [having conned someone]. I spoke to my dad regarding the character before I did this film and he said just like acting is an art and you need to be very honest, when you lie stick as close to the truth as you can. So I try to be as honest in a performance as I can possibly be as a con artist while conning as well. [The idea is to] make the person believe you”.
Kapoor, a fashion icon and daughter of actor Anil Kapoor, when asked about her contribution to the styling of the character said, it is very important for her to be involved with all her characters’ styling.
“Except in Aisha, I haven’t played a fashionista in film. For some strange reason, directors like me in Fab India [a popular traditional wear Indian brand] type of clothes with make up on for their films. Since my earliest films, I tend to work on my every character because as an actor it’s important to work on the physicality of every character. For Saawariya, Sanjay [Leela Bhansali] had faith in my aesthetic sense so he was really stress-free because I would do what I liked to do. For Delhi 6 I had Anamika [Khanna] to do my clothes and she was very upset because I wore only cotton suits in the film. For Dolly Ki Doli they gave us a colour theme. We conceptualised the dresses and sent the pictures to Abhishek and gave two options of everything with Karuna [the stylist] and that’s how it worked. It’s just that you have to work on the character yourself. Even for Khubsoorat, I wore all high street, cheap clothes – mostly exercise clothes. Contrary to popular belief we did not have a big budget for clothes in this film or for Khoobsurat. So I think it’s important to work on [this aspect] for every character – I think every actor does. But I think it’s because of my image, I’m asked this a lot more”.
So being a bride over and over and over again in the film did at any point give her any ideas for her own wedding?
“I’m so fed up of dressing up again and again I’d rather marry at a registrar’s office,” said Kapoor laughing. “It’s a joke! Honestly, I realised how uncomfortable wedding clothes are after this film but I will stick to my Punjabi roots and have that big fat wedding, really like a party for seven days”.
Rao, after a successful stint with films such as Shahid, Kai Po Che, Queen and Citylights, is playing a light-hearted, loud character as opposed to quiet, serious ones.
“It was a pleasant change to dance [rather than the light-hearted role]. Other than that I’ve portrayed the character as seriously and honestly as I did in other films. It’s not that because it’s comedy it was something different. But yes it I had a great time working on this film because I’ve portrayed a loud character which I’ve not done in earlier films”.
Samrat, known for his role in the 2013 film Fukrey, plays a police inspector in the film and of course, parallels were to be drawn with Salman Khan’s Chulbul Pandey in Dabangg series.
“I think the only similarities would be the name Robin Hood Pandey and Robin Singh, and we both have moustache, but my moustache is thicker”.
Dolly Ki Doli releases Thursday in Dubai along with Neeraj Pandey’s Akshay Kumar-starrer Baby and the producers are “apprehensive” yet “hopeful”.
“Yes there are always apprehensions to release a film with any other film, particularly when it is one with a very big star and well known director,” Khan said. “But we believe that they are different kinds of films, there will be different kind of audience. It’s a very good time of the year [to release a film] – particularly when our film is about weddings, fun, romance and music – because we have a very big holiday on January 26 [the Indian Republic Day]”.
