“I don't trust him,” laughs Neetu Chandra when you tell her Ram Gopal Varma is calling his latest film “Rann,” a men's film. “I have a good role. I play a Muslim model. It is very different from the roles I have done before. There are other women too in the film and all of them are wonderful,” Neetu says about “Rann”, her first film with Amitabh Bachchan and Ram Gopal Varma.
She says being a part of the powerhouse combination of RGV, Amitabh Bachchan and Paresh Rawal has been inspirational. “They are amazing people who put in lots of hard work. When everyone is perfect, people expect a lot from such films and even a small role gets noticed,” the actor says.
Neetu was in Bangalore with the team to promote “Rann”. On sharing screen space with the big B, she says: “It is every actor's dream and I started my career in advertising with Mr. Bachchan in a Parker pen ad,” she says smiling.
In awe of the superstar, Neetu says the actor brings out the best in his co-stars. “Though you become conscious of the superstar standing there, he makes you feel comfortable. He is so fantastic in his work that you would want to bring out the best in front of him,” say the actor. Neetu will be seen in “The Apartment” by Jagmohan Mundhra, and in projects with Vipul Shah, Raj Kanwar and Aneez Bazmi's “No Problem” starring Sanjay Dutt.
Her Tamil film “Theeradha Vilayaatu Pillai” in which she plays a villain, will be released in the first week of February. “I am a greedy person, hungry for meaty roles. What I look for is versatility,” adds Neetu, who plays a hardcore action-glam girl in “No Problem”.
Neetu was seen in Madhur Bhandarkar's “Traffic Signal”, Priyadarshan's “Garam Masala”, Dibakar Banerjee's “Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye” and the recent Madhavan starrer “13 B”. If “Traffic Signal” dealt with bringing the truth about societal issues such as drugs, dowry and the underworld, “Garam Masala” was a comedy. “I don't want to be tagged. I want to reach out to all kinds of people by playing different roles.”
“Rann”, she says is an attempt to let the common man understand the functioning of the media. The actor who believes that media has the power to make or break, says it has however conditioned the reality according to people's expectations. “We hear about Ruchika's case after 18 years. Where was media that time? So many incidents happening in the South, be it Tamil Nadu or Bangalore get less focus compared to the North. These are some of the questions which the common man might want to know the answers for,” she says.
Though there is no song and dance routine in the movie, the actor says there are plenty of feel-good moments in the film.
Describing the film as a drama between media and politics, she says every character is caught in it in a different way. “My character is caught in an emotional way with Jay Malik (Sudeep), the son of the media baron essayed by Bachchan.”
Neetu recalls the moment in the film where she touches Bachchan's feet. “It was like getting his blessings. If I can be one per cent of what he is, I will consider myself very fortunate,” she signs off.
