If you are in the same room as Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor, don’t be surprised if they make you feel like you are their buddy — and at the same time, an intruder who is eavesdropping on a private conversation.
Even before Kapoor finished a sentence to describe her role in their upcoming ABCD (AnyBody Can Dance) 2, Dhawan took over from yours truly to quiz her about her character, Vinnie.
“The similarity between Vinnie and Shraddha is that both have been wanting to dance since they were kids and Shraddha finally gets her chance to dance,” begins Kapoor.
“Who do you think is a better person, the better human being — Shraddha or Vinnie?” Dhawan asks.
“What kind of question is that?” Kapoor replies. “How can a person say whether they are a good human being or not?”
“Why not? It’s a valid question,” continued Dhawan. “You need to tell us who is the better one — you or Vinnie?”
“Do you say ‘I’m a good person’ Varun?” counter-queried Kapoor. “Do you say you are a good boy?”
“Yeah, I think I’m a good human being,” Dhawan said, a naughty smile playing on his face.
“Weird,” said Kapoor.
“Arre, but I do think I’m a good human being,” emphasised Dhawan.
So, was this how it was on the sets too, I question, trying to keep up with the conversation.
“Yes, we were like this on the sets also,” the lead pair of Remo D’Souza’s dance-based film ABCD2 say together.
“I think because all this went on, the work didn’t feel like work and it became fun even when we had the most difficult steps to do,” continued Dhawan, who has been basking in the glory of box office successes Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya, Main Tera Hero and Badlapur in the last year.
“We would fool around with each other, talk rubbish and do masti [mischief]. I feel Shraddha has that thing in her personality that when you are around her nothing really feels heavy and you don’t feel stressed. And I am someone who gets stressed and stresses people out. She kind of calms me down with her ‘Beta Varun aaram se’ [Son Varun, take it easy]”.
“But, if you really love what you do, eventually you don’t even take it as work, you know,” added Kapoor, who too is riding high with the award-winning blockbuster Haider. “For me I’ve been wanting to act since I was a little girl. And when you do it with a good friend, it gets even better. We’ve grown up together, we’ve been on our fathers’ sets together, so, we’ve known each other before either of us became actors. Initially it was like ‘can you believe it... we are doing a movie together?’ It’s kind of surreal. It is cool”.
“Yeah, that was funny. For a bit.” said Dhawan. “Then we had to actually say romantic lines. I’d say ‘Vinnie kai kar tos tumi?’”
“‘Vinnie kai kar tos tumi’ is not romantic, OK! It means ‘Vinnie what are you doing?’ in Marathi” laughed Kapoor.
“I know… so, yes, we are playing Maharashtrians and she being [half] Maharashtrian, it helps to get the dialect right and I tried to imbibe it in my character. She’s my coach”.
“A coach who doesn’t speak very good Marathi,” laughed Kapoor, whose mother Shivangi is the sister of popular 1980s Bollywood actress Padmini Kolhapure.
ABCD2, releasing in the UAE on June 18, takes Dhawan, Kapoor and a group of dancers all the way from Mumbai to Las Vegas for a dance show. The film, which will also have a 3D version, is inspired by an actual Indian band from a small town near Mumbai.
“We are fortunate to take on such an iconic franchise of a film such as ABCD,” said Kapoor, coming back to the film’s characters. “We are very fortunate that Remo sir wanted to make two actors like us dance and make us play real characters, real dancers who are from Nalasopara [a place near Mumbai] and their journey from there to Las Vegas,” said Kapoor.
Director D’Souza had in an earlier interview said that because Kapoor didn’t know how to dance, she was like clay and it was easier to turn her into a dancer.
“That’s a great thing to say,” said Kapoor. “The fact that he said that is really heartwarming and it’s so important for someone else to have such faith in you, even when you are doubting yourself. Varun never lost his faith in me.”
“Never,” agreed the Student of the Year actor.
“Lauren [Gottlieb] never lost her faith in me and she’s a dancing diva. In fact, we matched each other in one routine,” continued Kapoor.
“Shraddha is the only girl in the group and hats off to her for doing an outstanding job for dancing with the ‘baaps’ [experts] of dancing such as Prabhu sir, Dharmesh, Raghav and all these guys,” said Dhawan. “She matched everyone’s energy and passion to perfection.”
Speaking of Prabhu Deva, who is known as the Michael Jackson of India for his dancing skills, Dhawan says it’s easy to say that he is to dance what the legendary Sachin Tendulkar is to cricket.
“He has this aura around him. He doesn’t say much in the film but has this amazing dialogue ‘should I tell him or should I show him’. When you see this man’s feet moving, they literally do all the talking and I had the privilege of dancing behind him in the song Happy Hour,” said Dhawan. “I had to beg Remo sir to allow me that because it’s just amazing to see the way [Prabhu Deva] moves. It’s like poetry”.
“Remo sir... wanted us to look like the dancers, behave like them, think like them. That’s why he told us to spend a lot of time with them to understand their journeys and struggles”.
“I remember when we signed the film, the first thing that Shraddha said was ‘we will be dancers in the film’. So each time she’d meet after that she’d go ‘yeah, yeah’ and shake herself. So I’d ask her ‘what are you doing? That’s not dancing’. Do you remember this? You did this for the next two-three days”.
With such excellent on-screen and off-screen chemistry, could we see a future for the two friends?
“Well he broke my heart when I was eight,” said Kapoor.
“I will break your… your watch,” said Dhawan flabbergasted, grabbing her hand.
“See this? He’s a violent child. When he hits it’s like what they say ‘chatka lagta hai’ [it stings],” said Kapoor.
“She’s my friend, I’m not going to treat her [delicately],” laughed Kapoor. “But, yes, I’m very fond of her and she’s one actress I do actually want to work with again because she doesn’t behave like a heroine, honestly. In this film we play dancers and there’s a good romantic angle. But I would like to do an all-out love story with her — a tragic love story where Shraddha leaves me and I’m left all alone”.
“I hope all the directors out there are listening to him,” said Kapoor.
Did you know?
Before the casting of ABCD2, Salman Khan wanted to play Prabhu Deva’s character, Varun Dhawan told tabloid!. When Remo said it had to be played by a dancer, Khan joked with Remo that he’s known as the best dancer in India. “Salman has been extremely supportive of the film, as have been Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and other stars,” Dhawan said.