Priya Gill
THE FUTURE HAS JUST BEGUN

Three years and six films later Priya Gill stands at the crossroads again. She is one of the leading ladies in Josh to be released on June 9. She has come a long way from the Usha in my mind (when will you leave me alone, Usha?) I have met Priya many times during the time she has been here but I felt it was necessary to know this girl better because I saw a bright and great future for her. I had reason to.

We decided to meet one day. The time was 2 pm. I couldn’t make it. I rang her up. Luckily, I found her. I asked her if she could change the timing to three. She agreed. I took a liking for her. I like such girls, no airs, no arrogance, no angling for excuses. I am still fighting with time (Oh, how difficult you had made life for me in a city like Mumbai, dear time!) I try to run even though I have a broken knee. I jump into a luggage compartment and become a part of the luggage. A packed compartment like an old tin of rotten sardines, the sardines must be having some space in their tins but there’s absolutely no space in the tin we are packed in at three in the afternoon. Where do all these lakhs of people who have stopped looking like humans come from, O Mumbai? Anyway, who cares for life these days? I keep clinging to a rod and to hope. I have to reach Priya Gill. She is waiting all alone in the coffee shop of the Holiday Inn. She is brave, I must say but bravery too sometimes doesn’t work in this city which has become a coward. But one look at Priya, her pretty face and one flash of a smile and I’ve forgotten all about Mumbai, its people turning into sardines and snakes and its many problems. We start talking. It’s not so easy for a man who has committed a crime of making a girl wait for an hour.

So Priya let’s get down to business and let’s start from the beginning. When did you first come to Mumbai and from where?
I came to Mumbai three and half years ago to be exact. My father was a Brigadier in the army, so we have not lived in a place for a very long time. My father kept getting his transfers and we had to be on the move most of the times. So in a way I am very lucky to have travelled and lived in almost every part of India. Now I’ve realised that all that travelling, seeing places and living with different kinds of people helped me in making me a better, mature and more understanding actress.

Priya, did you ever think of becoming an actress. Do you know of those actresses who blush when they are asked the same question and say main do saal ki thee jab main actress banana chahati thi?
Yes, I was interested in the media a little in amateur theatre and some modelling. That’s all, nothing more. But certainly nothing like main joab do saal ki thi..

Then how come you got such a fascinating break in ABCL’s Tere Mere Sapne without anyone knowing you and without your even trying to look for a break.
It all seems like one big dream. A believe it or not story. I received a call from Mrs Jaya Bachchan’s office one day. They said they wanted to cast her in a film to be made by ABCL. I laughed it off as a joke. They called again. I thought it was a crank call and forgot all about it. But then the call came again and I felt it was something serious. It stayed in mind.

One day my father and me were somewhere in Juhu and we thought we should give it a try. We met Jayaji. She was happy to see me. I was thrilled to see one of my all-time favourite in flesh and blood. She said she had seen a photograph of mine in a newspaper and had decided that she wanted me as the heroine in Tere Mere Sapne the film ABCL was making. She asked me if I was interested in acting. I said I had never tried anything like acting seriously but I could try. I agreed and she cast me in Tere Mere Sapne. It was more than a beautiful dream come true for me.

You had never acted before then how come you came up with such a fine performance for which you even won the SCREEN-Videocon Award for the best newcomer?
I don’t no how acting came to me so naturally. And the role was not easy. It was not something like me. But my determination, my will to learn, my hard work and the cooperation of Jayaji and her entire team helped me to do nothing but my best. I was naturally very happy to see myself emerge as a very natural actress, not great but certainly material worth growing towards greatness. I was naturally very happy to see myself change into a very natural actress. Tere Mere Sapne was not a dream for me. It was a reality which told me that I couldn’t stop here. That I have to go miles and miles before I could be recognised as the full-fledged, complete actress.

You should have been flooded with offers after Tere Mere Sapne. You should have been in the race for the big time without any effort. Why did you take such a long time to reach where you have?
I know my career should have taken a swing for the better but I did not know how to go about things. I didn’t know anyone in the industry. I didn’t have any Godfathers or Godmothers. I didn’t know how to approach people for work. I was a bundle of all kinds of confused feelings. I knew things would happen at the right time. But that right time had to come. I had a dream break which was a silver jubilee hit. What more could anyone ask for? I think it was my not knowing how to go about things, meeting film people, mixing with them, talking their lingo, going to their late night parties, my not being part of them stopped me from my march ahead. My own behaviour slowed me down. Moreover, there were some offers that I turned down because I knew I was not happy with the kind of roles I was offered. I made one mistake by doing a so-called big film without knowing that I had actually made a very big mistake. What I was told I was to be in the film, I was not. There were times when I couldn’t even recognise myself in the film. It broke my heart but I still didn’t break.

Was that the time when people spread the story about your arrogant behaviour. Did the yellow rag-mags take your lifestyle as an opportunity to manufacture all kinds of wild and controversial stories about you. What do you think about the yellow magazines now?
I think you are right. My not meeting people and my not being part of the industry was mistaken by people who look for a chance to find people who make mistakes who they can later fool or even blackmail. That was the time when I really learnt what this industry was all about. That was the first time I got my first taste of how people say one thing and mean something else, when people promise something and do something else. When people agree to do something only to break those agreements. When people take advantage of all your disadvantages. I was fooled by filmmakers. I was blackmailed by these so-called rag-mags. I was so full of mad and bad thoughts that I wondered whether I was in the right place doing the right things and whether all this was worth it. I still didn’t give up even though I was being pressurised by some of my well-wishers to follow the ways of the world of films. I prefer to stay in rather than go up and become a ragamuffin doll. As I said I was willing to wait for the right time, the right people, the right breaks. I spent most of my time with myself. I thought what had to happen would happen and slowly things started happening.

What was the first good thing that happened to you on your career front after Tere Mere Sapne?
Mr Boney Kapoor called me and said he was making Kadal Kottai in Hindi and he wanted me to play the leading lady. I liked the film and I had no reason what-so-ever to turn down the film. Boney’s Sirf Tum turned out to be a big hit. It gave me a new life. The other films both in Hindi and in the South also helped me in all kinds of ways. So I decided that I would stay on and do films, all kinds of films but certainly not films which were nothing but films which made no sense to me or to the audience. Sometimes I wonder if I would still be here if Sirf Tum had not happened to me. And it looked like Sirf Tum was destined to be made only for me (Sirf Tum). I knew I deserved much more than I got but I was not the complaining type.
Are you getting some good work now, the kind of work your talent has proved and deserves?
Yes, I am being recognised. I am anxiously waiting for the release of Josh and what I have done in it. Josh gives me a great feeling of excitement because it is my first big commercial film and with a very big filmmaking company like Venus behind me and above all the great Shah Rukh Khan as my co-star. I could never believe that a man like Shah Rukh could go out of his way to help a new girl to come up with her best but Shah Rukh contrary to his image among people went out of his way to make me an actress who was worth much more than what she was in all the films she had done before Josh. Josh means excitement and I am expecting great excitement from the film. The rest I leave to God in whom I am a great believer.

Are you going to stamp yourself with the image of the saree-clad, typical Bharatiya Nari. Isn’t that what you are doing in most of your films?
Not at all. I know I am a complete actress. I am capable of playing all kinds of roles. In fact I am waiting for breaks in which I can really break my image which has clung to me till now. I want to play every kind of real character which will be a challenge to me as an actress. Frankly, I would love to do a film which will be an out and out comedy with David Dhawan. I am working out ways to shed out my image both in real life and reel life in a positive way. This is my great desire to work with great directors like Yash Chopra, Gulzar Sahab, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Santoshi, JP Dutta, Ram Gopal Varma and above all Subhash Ghai. I know I can only hope to work with them but I have not given up hope. My time too will come.

Are you game for what are called "daring roles" done by directors who have made a name for themselves?
I don’t know what they mean by "daring roles" but I am certainly not game for roles in which there is a lot of exposure for little or no reason at all. I am happy the way I am. I will be happier if some more meaty roles come my way. I certainly don’t want to be a mannequin in a showcase. I have come here to be an actress and I want to be an actress.

Talking personally didn’t you feel bad when I asked you to wait before I could meet you?. Didn’t your image as a star come in your way and say ‘what the hell...’?
Frankly, I don’t believe waiting is a waste of time if you wait without cursing, without grumbling and without hating the person who has made you wait. I used the time spent in waiting in observing life. I am a great observer of people and happenings around. I believe observation is a very good exercise for an actress. Now, in the time I have waited for you I have seen so much happening in this coffee shop itself. I have heard people talking about God knows what but they are talking all the time. I have observed and captured various kind of human moments and movements. I have observed people individually, as couples, in a group and as a group of corporate bosses too. If this is not learning what is for an actress?

As an actress do you also believe in learning from life all the time?
Of course I do. Learning is a must for anyone who has got anything to do with the media especially the film media and for an actor or an actress and writers and directors specially. I believe in learning all the time. Learning from whatever source I can because the moment a person stops learning he/she is as good as dead. Keep learning and you will never lose interest in life. That’s my motto in life.

PS: That evening Priya had to cancel two appointments because of my not keeping my appointment with her. She didn’t mind it at all, she told me. The next morning she called to say that what she had missed she had gained. I didn’t know what she meant by what she said but I must say that Priya Gill is one girl who is out to gain, gain all that is good, gain all that will gain her a place in the realms of film world. And for this, and for all the waiting I was responsible for I can only wish her all the best and a prayer which will be heard because she is like me, a great believer in God’s greatness and goodness.

Ali Peter John.