Big sister is watching

Actor Shraddha Kapoor on channelling the spirit of Don Corleone when playing mafia queen Haseena Parkar

On ground: Kapoor spent time with Parkar’s family for the role

Shraddha Kapoor is worried that I have a slight cold. She asks concernedly if I’d like to drink something warm, and keeps a bundle of tissues even before she gets a reply from me. The young actor will be seen in a role far from this amiable persona with Apoorva Lakhia’s HaseenaParkar which releases this week. She will play the titular character of gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s sister who held great clout in Mumbai’s underworld in the 90s.

The biopic will join the few Bollywood films that have an anti-heroine carrying the plot on her shoulders. Kajol’s Isha in Gupt (1997) or Bipasha Basu’s Sonia from Jism (2003), are the more likely variety of anti-heroines in Bollywood: the kind that aren’t the film’s protagonist, but are at least one of the film’s leading ladies. Haseena Parkar will follow more along the lines of Shabana Azmi’s depiction of Rambhi in Godmother (1999). Rambhi steps into her husband’s shoes as the leader of a crime syndicate when he is killed. With Haseena… , Kapoor’s character also gets centre-stage and she will portray the gangster’s journey from a young bride to the underworld’s aapa , or “elder sister” as she was best known. “It’s not fiction at all”, says Kapoor about the film. “She has experienced an innumerable amount of loss, and that’s what we’re showcasing.”

To get into character, Kapoor spent a lot of time with Parkar’s family, and she shares that their accounts of their

aapa’s life were especially vivid and intimate. “I wish I had the chance to meet her,” says Kapoor about Parkar, who passed away in 2014. “[The director] Apoorva and I tried to draw up whatever we could from hearing all those anecdotes and stories,” she shares.

Since Kapoor plays a mother, she would watch women vlogging about their pregnancies and deliveries. But to nail Parkar’s persona as

aapa , Kapoor turned to Marlon Brando. “After Haseena Parkar becomes aapa , there is a certain shift in her energy,” explains the young actor. “I watched the beginning of The Godfather for its confident impact.” The foreboding opening sequence with Marlon Brando’s performance as mafia leader Vito Corleone famously establishes the character’s immense but strangely principled use of power.

It’s been seven years since Kapoor’s debut in thriller Teen Patti , and with Haseen… , the young actor has her first female-centric film. She has come a long way since Teen Patti , but admits that she has never wanted to only act. “I’ve been interested in singing. I also paint, and write my own songs,” she says. “I’ve not shared [these] with the world as yet, but I will… soon.”

The young actor says that her interest in human behaviour and thinking led to her pursuing a degree in psychology in Boston. “My original plan was to finish my undergraduate programme and then get into films,” says Kapoor. “But I decided to get into films [during my summer break]. I dropped out of college then, but I wouldn’t be an advocate of it. I wish I [had] completed my undergrad,” she adds in hindsight.

Among things she’d love to do apart from acting, Kapoor hopes she will one day make a documentary about what goes on behind the scenes when making a film. “I feel that we – the actors and directors – are in the limelight. But what about the technicians?” she asks. “It’d be really nice to see what goes into making a film, specifically catering to everybody who is not in front of the camera.”

As for what Kapoor is currently working on, she will star in another biopic, this time on badminton champion and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal. She will also be seen in Saaho , which co-stars Telugu actor Prabhas. “It’s my first multilingual film, so I’m really excited about it!” she says beaming.