Thus far, talks about Dibakar Bannerjee’s next film Shanghai have revolved primarily around its — supposedly warring — lead heroes, Emraan Hashmi and Abhay Deol. But quietly slipping under the radar is Kalki Koechlin, who could just be the real star of the show. Apparently, the plot revolves around Kalki’s character.
While refusing to divulge any further information, Kalki says she plays a young, passionate and “very, very angry woman”. “It was easy to play a character like that, as it comes naturally to me,” she giggles. “But not that easy either. Dibakar is a perfectionist and he pushes the actors to keep going and never stop. In fact, we shot the film in one go.”
But even in the middle of this intense experience, there were a few laughs. “One scene required me to beat up a guy in the film. Dibakar explained to me to hit him like a golf swing. But I don’t play golf, so obviously I didn’t know what a golf swing was supposed to be like. The poor actor whose head was beaten up had to suffer it over and over again. Dibakar and I had no mercy and we kept hitting him,” she laughs.
Ask Kalki about her chemistry with Emraan Hashmi, and the petite actress quickly responds, “When I read the script for the first time, Emraan Hashmi was my favourite character. I totally loved this guy who was a typical small town sleazy guy and is so fascinated by the firang girl and stumped by her. I think we had really a fun time playing that chemistry.”