January 6th, 2009
Talking about Monica Mogre Case Files. Why Monica Mogre as a name?
Monica Mogre is just a name. I had never played a cop’s role in my life. Thanks to Zee, they fulfilled my dream of playing a cop as inspector Monica Mogre. I always wanted to play a cop’s role.
What is your role in Monica Mogre Case Files?
I play a cop in this show. It is about playing a cat and mouse chase with the criminals and risking one’s life and putting the criminals behind the bar. It is about giving justice and serving for the welfare of the society.
Shifting from Monica Mogre Case Files to Dev D. What is Dev D all about?
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.
Your character in the movie…
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.
How it’s been working with your co-star Abhay Deol?
Working with Abhay was amazing. I mean, I have my own apprehension because Abhay is four or five films senior.
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?
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.
How did you bag this film?
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.
We heard you had a steamy scene with Abhay in the movie, which you were finding it uncomfortable to shoot?
I wasn’t uncomfortable because of the steamy scene. That is ok. 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 stinkiest 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.
You have had the opportunity of working for both big and small screens. How would you differentiate between the two?
A film on one 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.
You had some problem with Balaji for the serial named ‘Kis desh main hai mera dil’?
I was not having any problems with Balaji. They had offered me a certain character in the show, but when the shoot started I came to know that it was totally a different character. I was not comfortable with the character which they were giving me and so I backed out from the show.
Any future projects?
As of now, in television is just Monica Mogre Case Files and in cinema its Dev D. lets see how much the audience love me, accordingly I will decide on other scripts as well. I hope the audience like my performance in Dev D.
