There is a vast difference between East Delhi and North-west Delhi. And we are not speaking in kilometres. As Hunny aka Pulkit Samrat found out while shooting for Fukrey (releasing June 14) that distance played out in his character's mannerisms, his speech pattern and his style of dressing! “I am a Delhi boy. So a lot of people might think it was easy for me to essay Hunny but he is a typical East Delhi guy and I am not! And the difference is known to those who live in that area. The culture, diction and even the attitude to life and its situations are different in East Delhi!” says Pulkit, whose character is already winning him wows. “I consciously copied my director Mrigh. He is my muse, my guiding light for this film. I picked up his speech pattern and his body language for Fukrey .”
“It’s a blessing to be in the right place at the right time. I know that my earlier film Bittoo Boss didn’t do well but it worked wonders for me. Producers Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar saw a clip of my song Kick lag gayi… from Bittoo Boss and suggested my name to director Mrighdeep Singh Lamba who told them that incidentally he was also thinking about getting in touch with me,” he says. When Pulkit received a call from Excel Entertainment, the first thing that hit him was panic. “Obviously these guys are on every aspiring actor’s wish list but to actually have their numbers flashing on your cell phone was something else.”
The film is about four ‘fukras’ (Delhi colloquial for good-for-nothings) who just about manage to pass out of school to get into college for the sake of bunking and checking out girls, among other ‘life-shaping goals’. “I went to a public school in the Jheel area of East Delhi once to get an idea about its students’ life. I found them street smart. All of them were hanging around outside their school and I told them I’d like to get in. They managed to talk the watchman into letting me in. I saw that some exam papers were being distributed and only those who had passed were allowed to sit in class and, believe me, there were only two boys sitting in, in a class of close to 50! Those standing out were having a gala time. That was the attitude we wanted to bring into our role,” says Pulkit.
ADVERTISEMENT
Asked if being a ‘fukra’, the term getting very popular among the youth presently, would affect society adversely given the kind of attitude it prescribes, he says, “There is a story about two boys which I’d like to tell. These two managed to pass school with 40 or 50 per cent. They managed to get through to college also somehow. They were supposedly total losers. And I am talking about Farhan and Ritesh here. The idea we are trying to propagate in the film is that have fun in life and see it in totality. Your goals and targets will be achieved.”