The weather was already hot enough in Goa the last few days,
but Kriti Sanon’s presence
at Kala Academy in the early afternoon hours of 24th November
sent the temperatures soaring high as the actress showed up in a lovely red
jumpsuit. The icing on the cake was Adil Hussain making a surprise appearance to join Kriti Sanon
and the moderator Arjun Narula in an In-Conversation session titled, ‘Ms. Taken Identity – Getting To Know Kriti
Sanon.’
It is important to note that Adil Hussain’s film, ‘Abyakto’, is
being screening at IFFI this year in the Feature Film section of Indian
Panorama.
The session started with the actors expressing their love
for Delhi – a city that they share fond memories of. While Kriti hails from the
national capital city, Adil Hussain feels emotionally connected with the city
and credits it for sort of ‘giving him a rebirth’. Adil was referring to his
development as an actor during his days at National School of Drama.
Before making a mark in the film and fashion industry, Kriti
was born and raised in New Delhi where she pursued an engineering degree after
which she moved to Mumbai. She made her acting debut with the Telugu
psychological thriller 1: ‘Nenokkadine’ (2014)
and had her first Hindi film release in Sabbir Khan’s action film ‘Heropanti’ opposite Tiger Shroff
for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Sanon went on to
play the lead female role in two commercially successful films, the
action-comedy ‘Dilwale’ (2015),
which ranks among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, and the romantic
comedy ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ (2017).
The actress confessed that akin to some of the best events
in her life, a career in acting was unplanned.
While Kriti started her acting career from the South, Adil
has worked in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam,
Norwegian and French films over the years. When asked how these myriad film
industries differ with each other, Adil Hussain said, “In the West, there is
precise planning involved and the sets are quieter, unlike the culture here in
India.” The National Award winning
actor has recently acted in Norwegian film, ‘What Will People
Say’ that has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at
the 91st Academy
Awards.
While elaborating further on the topic, the actor said that
he has decided to not act in Tamil and Telegu films primarily because of the
language barrier that prohibits the actor in him from going with the flow.
Both Adil and Kriti have worked with women directors in the
past. When asked if the experience of working with women directors is different
as opposed to their male counterparts, Kriti failed to point out any
distinctions stating that it is not gender-based but an individualistic
trait. Adil, on the other
hand, felt that there is a certain grace on the set of a film when a woman
director is in control. He further said, “I feel, a female director
tends to look at a role with a tad more empathy and compassion than a man
would.”
When asked by one of the audience members about how the
parallel cinema or art-house cinema fares against the mainstream commercial
cinema, Adil said that the current times look good for the former and it looks
like things are going to improve. He said, “Film festivals and digital
platforms have been showing great interest in films of this nature. The current
times are ‘Achhe
Din’ for Art-house cinema.”
The past year has been full of work for Kriti and the next
year looks exciting for the actress as her films are going to be released.
Kriti said, “I have ‘Luka Chuppi’,
‘Arjun Patiala’ and ‘Housefull
4’ for release next year. I am also looking forward to working with
Ashutosh Gowarikar on ‘Panipat’,
which will be my first period film.”
Sriram Raghavan,
best known for producing some of the grittiest thrillers in Hindi cinema was
seen with brother Shridhar
Raghavan in the audience.
