Kriti Sanon talks Acting and ‘Raabta’ with Sushant

Kriti Sanon debuted in Bollywood with the action-packed Heropanti, opposite (then newbie) Tiger Shroff in 2014. Her modern and endearing demeanour is what thoroughly impressed the audience.

Post-Heropanti, we saw Kriti appear as the love interest of Varun Dhawan in Dilwale, which released in Christmas 2015. But Raabta could be a potential game-changer for her.

In an exclusive interview with DESIblitz, talks about her role in the upcoming romantic thriller, Raabta.

Talking about her role Saira in the Dinesh Vijan directorial, the 26-year-old actress tells us:

“Saira isn’t really a girl-next-door character as I’ve never seen a girl like that in real life. She’s quite quirky and decisive. Saira is someone who lives independently, is in with-the-best and loves chocolate. So, I learnt how to make chocolates for that! At the same time, she’s very endearing and loveable.”

However, that’s not all. As well as appearing in a modern avatar, we will also see Kriti as the fiery warrior princess, Sahibaan. She also tells us about this character:

“Sahibaan is someone who is fierce, completely fearless and has almost been brought up like a guy. She knows how to tackle all difficulties, is impulsive and takes decisions really fast. Sahibaan can do anything to protect her own land.”

According to Sanon, scenes of the past are shown for approximately 20-30 minutes through the whole film. Therefore, the real challenge here is to transport the audience to that medieval era.

With a challenging role like Sahibaan, it is clear that a lot of physical training would be required. In fact, we’ve seen several actresses like Deepika Padukone for xXx and Anushka Shetty for Baahubali 2 undergo heavy training for action-packed roles recently.

Kriti tells DESIblitz about the preparations she underwent for the role:

“First of all, I had to learn horse-riding. There’s a section when my character was riding a horse and I had to look convincing in doing that. I did a learn a little bit of mixed martial arts and hand-to-hand combat because that was used a bit here and there.”

Above all, it seems like this training helped Kriti with the body language:

“When you’re playing a warrior, how you stand, run and everything has to be of a warrior. When you learn any form of action, it makes your stance and movement better. You start feeling slightly stronger and your body language changes a little.”

Parallel storytelling is always intriguing to watch on celluloid. Be it a modern folklore fusion like Mirzya or a love saga from two eras in a film like Love Aaj Kal, there is always a curiosity factor which draws the audience in.

What attracted Sanon to Raabta?

“I think it’s the narrative actually which attracted me to the film. It is these two (main) characters, the way they meet and they are, plus, the way the story flows, are all beautifully linked. Playing two different characters from two different eras, for an actor, is a great thing.”

It’s not just the film’s story and concept that interested Kriti. But she also believes in having that special ‘Raabta’ (meaning ‘connection’) with people.

“I sometimes wonder that there are signs when you meet certain people who feel more familiar than the rest. Sometimes you meet someone, you instantly talk with that person and find this connect with this person which is unexplainable. Raabta talks about that.”

From the trailer, it appears that Kriti shares quite a powerful on-screen chemistry with her co-star, Sushant Singh Rajput. She also talks to DESIblitz about her on-screen and off-screen rapport with the MS Dhoni actor:

“I honestly feel that with Sushant, the on-screen chemistry was a little different and it was there when we didn’t know each other at all.”

“We were meeting and shooting with each other for the first time. That is something which Dinu (Dinesh Vijan) pointed out and discovered. He sometimes tell us that it’s very strange, that if you did this film with other people, it would not be the same.”

Listen to our full interview with Kriti Sanon here:

What is quite surprising, is that both Kriti and Sushant never really worked on their chemistry, in preparation for takes. Vijan never told them to do so. Sounds odd, right? Well, this is what the actress tells DESIblitz:

“As actors, somehow, we (Rajput and Sanon) were just listening to each other and reacting to each other. In a way, this was translating into chemistry. We ourselves didn’t know how this was happening!”

Considering that the title track conveys: “Kyun Hai Yeh Kaise, Humein Tu Bata, Kuch Toh Hai Tujhse Raabta.” This shows that the special connection between Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon is truly inexplicable.

Aside from Raabta, Kriti will next feature in Bareilly Ki Barfi alongside Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao.

Sanon promises this to be a “funny, romantic honey kind of a film”.

Releasing in cinemas on 9th June 2017, DESIblitz wishes Kriti and team Raabta all the very best!