The pin-up girls were at their glamourous best when they stopped by at a hotel in Bengaluru to talk about their film Calendar Girls. The much-awaited Madhur Bhandarkar film that’s releasing in theatres next Friday, is already garnering a lot of buzz. We get it straight from the leggy lasses Avani Modi, Akanksha Puri, Ruhi Singh, Kyra Dutt and Satarupa Pyne on their roles and how they got lucky.
Avani Modi: Making her Bollywood debut, this theatre actress who has done a few Tamil films, besides some international short films states, “I’m from Gujarat and shifted to Mumbai to pursue my acting dreams.
A friend told me that Madhur was looking for fresh faces. I play the role of Naznin Malik, a girl from Lahore and I had to watch a lot of Pakistani movies and you tube videos to prep up. There was healthy competition among us all and we became good friends.”
Ruhi Singh: This ex-Miss India universal peace and humanity 2014 towers over the others, as she lets us in on how she bagged the role. “Madhur had watched my documentary The world before her and was impressed. After a couple of meetings, I was selected. Coming from a beauty pageant background, there were a few challenges,” says the go-getter from Jaipur, who is playing the role of Mayuri Chauhan from Rohtak.
Akanksha Puri: Having acted in a Kannada, Tamil and two Malayalam films, facing the camera came easy for her. The Punjabi girl from Indore reveals, “Madhur felt I was the right fit for the role of Nandita Menon, a south-Indian girl. I’ve never modelled before, so the only time I felt uncomfortable was when I wore a bikini for a song, but the other girls who have been models, helped me out and we became good friends. ”
Satarupa Pyne: The Bong girl from Kolkata admits that this is a dream role for her. “He needed a Bengali character and I auditioned on Kangana’s Fashion script and that day changed my life. Madhur would say his one-liners and boost our morales all the time. The film begins with my crying shot, which is a climax scene and I had to plunge head on. Another incident that was petrifying was a shoot with the wild tigers in Mauritius and I wasn’t wearing much,” says Satarupa who is going to start on another film soon.
Kyra Dutt: Playing the role of a Goan girl in the film, Kyra wants to debunk the myth that calendar girls from Goa are easy to get. “Sharon Pinto is free-spirited who comes to do a swimsuit shoot, but is high on morals and is like me. I am from Kolkata and came to Mumbai to get to experience the dark side and the good side of this industry. I did the Kingfisher calendar shoot in 2013 and when I came to know Madhur was looking for a face on the same lines, I knew this was my calling. It’s very different from my modelling for the calendar, but my theatre background helped me a lot,” states Kyra who is also finishing shooting for her next film called XXX for Balaji Productions.
