Sonam: I was under stress filming ‘Neerja’

Actress Sonam Kapoor says she was under stress working in the biopic Neerja, releasing next year.

The Ram Madhvani directed film depicts the story of a senior flight attendant, Neerja Bhanot, who saved 360 lives on a Pan Am flight that was hijacked in 1986. Bhanot became the youngest and first woman recipient of the Ashok Chakra Award, India’s highest peacetime military decoration awarded for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield, posthumously.

“It was not emotionally draining. It is important that this story is told. It is about this girl, the youngest civilian who got Ashoka Chakra. She was a normal girl. She did bit of modelling. She had the courage to save the world,” Kapoor said.

The Khoobsurat actress said she was stressed throughout the shooting in anticipation that whether she is doing justice with her role.

“I [am] hoping I have done [the] best job possible. I feel the reason why this film was made is to [tell] everyone that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. You have to be ordinary to do extraordinary things and everybody has that in them. You need to have courage to do things.”

The 30-year-old actress revealed that there are quite a few similarities between her and Neerja.

“My values with family, relationships, sensitivity, strong sense of ethics.I think the sense of right and wrong, young people need to see these values and have courage to do right things. This ordinary girl did extraordinary [things],” she said.

With her last release Prem Ratan Dhan Payo being a superhit, Kapoor said the Rajshri Production film has given her a wider reach as an actor.