Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez and Taapsee Pannu, co-stars of September 29 release Judwaa 2, dropped into the t2 office on Tuesday afternoon for a ROFL chat. Varun entered the building and headed for the stairs. We assured them “humara lift chalu hai” which had the three stars cracking up, setting the mood for the half-an-hour-long chat. 
“Woww… OMG,” went Jacqueline as she saw the food from Bodega Cantina-Y-Bar —  Shroom Balls, Gondhoraj Chicken Tarts and Vietnamese Fish Fingers —  and Judwaa-themed macaroons from Paris Cafe. “Iss liye hum khaake nahin aaye,” exclaimed Varun, pausing to take a call. The voice at the other end? A certain Miss Alia Bhatt. “Have they given you cupcakes?” she asked when she realised Varun was in the t2 office. “Yes, yes, they have and there’s a lot of food!” assured Varun. And then there was no stopping him and his hers.

Chandreyee Chatterjee: Judwaa brings to mind unadulterated fun. Shooting the film must have been a lot of fun as well?

Taapsee Pannu: I think we should shoot it again! But Varun wouldn’t want that. He’s already shot it twice!
Jacqueline Fernandez: As much as it was fun, it wasn’t an easy job to recreate something so iconic and so loved and making it now relatable 20 years later. But yeah, at the same time, you’ve got the Dhawan family, and it was really cool to work with them. We all have this connection, all our first films were with David sir.
Varun Dhawan: They’ve only not worked with my mom now…
Taapsee: I know! I’ve worked with your brother also.

Chandreyee: As you just said it’s an iconic film. So when you decided to take it up weren’t you nervous?

Taapsee: (Points at Varun) He was nervous, he was nervous! 
Jacqueline: He is still!
Varun: It’s a massive responsibility because you’re coming back with a film that had been loved by so many people. And I have loved it. If someone was doing a film that I loved, I’d be like, ‘How’s he going to do it?’ When Don, Devdas were being remade, I remember how the press, the people were reacting to it.
 

 

Pramita Ghosh: Whose idea was it to remake the film?

Varun: I think it was Sajid [Nadiadwala] sir and dad’s [David Dhawan]. It was completely their idea and I think the discussion that went on between me and him was like, he’s like, ‘I don’t want to direct you in a normal film right now. What will be challenging for you now is a double hero, do a twin film. You can either do one playing two or two’, and he’s made so many of them so it’s a genre he knows. So I was like, ‘Yeah, double role will be cool’. That was it. Then three months later I entered the hall and he and Sajid sir were sitting, and they both together are like these dons and I’d just woken up and was in my boxers. They’re like, ‘We’re making Judwaa 2 and you’re going to be in it. But we’ll give you the script after six months’. They didn’t talk to me after that. I kept asking for the script for six months and then they finally gave me a narration. 
Jacqueline: It was very different for me because I hadn’t grown up watching Judwaa…
Varun: What did you grow up watching? Have you grown up?!
Jacqueline: (Laughs) Okay fine, you got me there! But when they told me they were making Judwaa 2, I was like, ‘Oookay… can I get a narration or something?’ and David sir was like, ‘Just watch the movie’. When I watched the film, I laughed so much! I found it so hilarious and the coolest thing was 20 years later people still watch it. I watched it as a completely new audience and I loved it. I was like, ‘This is so cool’. The biggest thing for me was first of all, being in this cult film and then getting into the shoes of Karisma (Kapoor) was very daunting especially after I saw the film. I was like ‘Oh my god. She’s amazing. She’s got so much energy and can I match up to this?’ Then I imagined what this one (points at Varun) was also going through… double the tension. But it was amazing because I knew I was in good hands with David sir.
Varun: Jacqueline and me are like that scene in F.R.I.E.N.D.S where Jennifer Aniston meets her college friends and they just go, ‘Aaaaa’ (flaps his hands)!
Taapsee: I grew up watching this film. I was nine or 10 when it released… I don’t think I saw it in the theatre at that point. I was so obsessed with Oonchi hai building that during Chashme Baddoor I forced David sir and Ganesh Acharya master, who was also there in Mauritius, and it was the last set of the film, I forced him to shoot a bit of Oonchi... with me! Ever since I was an actor, it was my fantasy to dance in this song. I properly did a bit of dance and even though I knew he wouldn’t use it, I was still happy because I danced!

Chandreyee: But then you got to do it in the film itself!

Taapsee: Yeah, at that time I don’t think even David sir knew he’d make Judwaa 2 and forget about me being in it. Jisko poori shiddat se chaho toh poori kaynaat usse tumhein milaane… (Laughs)

Pramita: You also got to do the classic beach run! How was that?

Taapsee: I got to do all the quintessential Bollywood things! The slo-mo running, coming out of the water, the bikini! I did everything. I grew up watching these films and in my head the idea of a heroine is not just somebody who performs but also someone who can look a million bucks. So, I think it would have been incomplete to miss that sort of a role and shots. It was very difficult in the gym. I don’t like to go to the gym… but because of these two, I had to go to the gym!
Jacqueline: But she was so dedicated you know! Like honestly! On the last day of shoot, till we had to shoot the Mauritius songs, the whole family was there… Salman [Khan] had come, David sir, Sajid Nadiadwala, Varun was there and when the shoot wrapped up and we were in good spirits, chatting and reminiscing about the old Judwaa and I’m having a piece of pizza and I was like, ‘Taapsee, Taapsee… pizza!’ And Taapsee was like, ‘No, not till the Mauritius shoot is over!’ (Laughs) I was like, ‘Oh shit, I have a bikini shot as well… what am I doing?’ Even when we landed in Mauritius and we all met up for an African dance thing there was chocolate cake, but she was like, ‘No!’
(The Judwaa 2-themed cake from Paris Cafe is brought in and all three break out into “ooohs” and “aaahs”)
Taapsee: Oh wooowww! This is so coooool! Let us all... Instagram right now!
Jacqueline: Oh my god! Taapsee which one is which? 
Taapsee: Which one is me? I’m the one with black hair or brown hair?
Jacqueline: You’re brown!
Varun: This is incredible art. This is really cool. Isey banaya kisne? 
Taapsee: Arre, main batati hoon, Raja ke saath mein Jackie, I think it’s you! Jacqueline: Oh ya! Of course!
Taapsee: So brown hair is me only! 
(Looks at Varun poking at the girl’s figurine on the cake) What the hell are you doing?!
Varun: Pulling your skirt down! (Grins)
Taapsee: What do you mean pulling the skirt down?!
Varun: Look I want to take a picture so I don’t want it to look like…(clears throat)
Taapsee: How cheap is that Varun?!

Chandreyee: So, did you get tips from Salman Khan or Karisma Kapoor?

Varun: Not really because in that sense the film is really new. Whenever I have met him and discussions have happened and he said always ‘listen to the director’, because obviously he made the film and the second time he is making the film also. So in that sense we all had surrendered to him. The film is actually new except for a few scenes that have been retained. Screenplay and story-wise a lot of things are new... we had to present it in a 2017 way.

Chandreyee: But doing those two popular songs must have been quite a challenge.... 

Varun: Honestly, I didn’t try to think what they did in the song but obviously our mind will go there. Like Oonchi hai building specially has crazy energy! And it looked like we had popped some pills or something.
Taapsee: It was like we were back to school!

Chandreyee: But it was also so exciting to see you, Jacqueline, do the Tan ta na tan step with Salman and Varun, you with Karisma… it looked like so much fun!

Varun: It was damn cool.
Jacqueline: Yes! Yes! Yes!
Varun: I got to do that with Salman bhai on stage [IIFA in New York] also but ya I was so excited when they did that video and to see him…
Jacqueline: That was so amazing! I just had agreed to do something and send it back home, and I was like what should we do, and he said okay, let’s do this. There was a little footage before, which I had to cut (laughs). He was like ‘just use the best parts’! But he was amazing, he said ‘chalo let’s do Tan ta na tan’. He knew it so well and I was the one goofing up you know… and I was like oh god! 
Varun: It’s his step, obviously he is going to know it!
Jacqueline: But 20 years later?!

Rwitoban Deb: Taapsee, aren’t you tired being asked why you chose a fun film like Judwaa 2 after Pink and Naam Shabana?

Taapsee: (Laughs) Varun starts answering this even before I do! He is like ‘she started with Chashme Baddoor!’ (Laughs)
Varun: Ya I mean how can people forget that?! 
Taapsee: I started with that and very honestly I confess that I didn’t get to do these kinds of roles and films after that. I chose what I got and tried to make the best out of it. Now when I got an opportunity to change gears I said yes! The biggest fear of an actor is to get stereotyped. I thought when I got this opportunity I should grab it because it is not a new zone for me, I have done this for years down south. This was almost like homecoming… singing, dancing and looking glamorous, now in Hindi.
 
Pramita: Jacqueline, tell us honestly, are there people who are jealous of you for having all party hits under your belt from Sooraj dooba hai, Jumme ki raat, Sau tarah ke, Disco disco to…

Jacqueline: Now all the Judwaa songs! (Laughs)
Pramita: How does it feel? Do you have a hit mantra?
Jacqueline: I don’t know actually! I have been very very blessed with songs… (Looks at Varun) Your dad was also telling me ‘You see now what will happen with you after Judwaa… you will have what songs!’ I was just on tour right now in London, it was so great to see and be able to perform to all these songs. So ya, it’s a blessing to have good songs.
Pramita: Which among your songs is your fave?
Jacqueline: (Clears throat) I know this is not a party-party song but then my fave is Chittiyan kalaiyaan! 
Varun: It is a massive party song! 100 per cent if it’s an Indian club, you will find it playing!  
Rwitoban: Have you guys ever been mistaken as someone else? Like a judwaa…
Jacqueline: I used to be called Genelia (D’Souza) a lot when I first came here. Even while I was promoting Murder 2, we went to Bangalore or something and they will be like ‘Geneliaaaaa!’ I was like ‘Err that’s not my name, but okay!’ So ya mine would be Genelia.

Chandreyee: But if there is a celeb who could be a judwaa, who would it be?

Jacqueline: Oh I have a judwaa… Ranveer Singh! (cracks up) 
Varun: Ya that’s true! 
Jacqueline: Ya sometimes we even end up wearing the same clothes! It’s like so crazy and I don’t know how it happens and I am like… ‘the good thing is Ranveer, I always wear it before you!’ (Claps and laughs)
Taapsee: Sometimes, with my original curly hair from the back, people mistake me for Kangana (Ranaut).
Varun: Yes, her hair! On flights!
Jacqueline: Yes, especially on the flight if you are sitting behind Taapsee. You take off, her hair will be a different design, you land, it’s a completely different style! It grows and grows in the course of one flight! [Everyone cracks up]

Tiash De (third-year student of Presidency University and Taapsee fan): Taapsee, your character in Baby and Naam

Shabana fought like a woman and broke all the boundaries that we have. So what went into the prep for those roles?
Taapsee: I am so happy you said she fought like a woman and not like a man! Thank you so much for that. I worked on it for 10 months. I am not a person who has even slapped a man in real life and I still probably can’t. But then it was 10 months of five days a week and two hours of training in aikido, Krav Maga and basic MMA. I had to pull it off because it is first-of-its-kind and thankfully the words I hear from you make it all worth it. It did require a lot of hard work and especially for a person who has not done martial arts before, doesn’t like seeing violence... I don’t even see action films that much. So yes it was a big challenge, plus the emotional track that went behind it, I am 180 degree out of phase with Naam Shabana. I don’t have anything even remotely close to Shabana in real life. So that was for me the biggest challenge till now.

Pramita: Varun, you complete five years in Bollywood and you have done a variety of films, from a Badlapur to romcoms to full comedy... is variety something you strive for? What’s next? 

Varun: After this it’s Shoojitda’s  (Sircar) film. After that there is a film with Sharat Katariya called Sui Dhaaga.... I think as a human being and an artiste when you do a comedy, especially like Judwaa, you get that out of your system because there is only so much comedy or so much a person can smile or laugh. So when I am done with that I have to go into another genre. 
Judwaa mentally and physically has exhausted me a lot because I had to keep thinking how. One, you have the old film and you don’t want to be like that. You want to do something new and do something well, so a lot of thinking is involved with the film. There is a lot of physical humour and physicality in the film. So I was very drained with the happiness quotient by the end of the film. I am happy to do other genres but of course I need to see this one through first.

Ahana Bhattacharya (t2 reader and Varun fan): I am a huuuuge Varun Dhawan fan and want to know how is he as a person on the sets? Is he funny, naughty or serious…

Taapsee: He is a story cooker! He cooks some random stories out of thin air, which has no reality. He will be like ‘Taapsee, Jacqueline was saying this this…something randomly…’
Jacqueline: He’ll be like ‘Ya, go beat her up!’
Taapsee: Sometime he is saying all this in front of me only and then say I am sitting he will go and say ‘Jacqueline, you know Taapsee was saying this’… and I am like when did I say this? So he cooks up some really random stories. (Laughs)
Ahana: We’ve heard you even made Alia cry on the sets of Badrinath Ki Dulhania...
Jacqueline: Haw! What are you saying? You made her cry? That’s so terrible! 
Varun: She cries for everything.
Taapsee: He can’t make us cry, trust us.
Varun: We all cried!
Jacqueline: I cried with laughter and joy (smiles). But I have seen him being scolded by his dad!
Varun: More than anything I think when you are on a film set, kabhi kabhi itna lamba hota hai ki you have to keep yourself entertained, so I keep myself very entertained…
Jacqueline: By us!
Varun: Yeah at the expense of my co-stars (laughs).

Anuvab Deb Sinha (t2 reader and Jacqueline fan): Jacqueline and Taapsee, as outsiders in the industry with no filmi back-ground, has it been difficult to “make it”?

Taapsee: I have an entire newspaper which says it… “The Outsider” (holds up a t2 cover story as evidence).
Varun: (Points to Jacqueline) She is not just from outside the industry, she is from outside the country.
Jacqueline: (Points to Taapsee) You are the outsiderrrrrrrrrrr...
Taapsee: Ya, but you are out-out.
Jacqueline: I am an alien (everyone laughs). No, but seriously, of course it is difficult. Everything requires a huge amount of hard work, to prove yourself and to break in. But, you know, everyone comes with their own form of struggles. Everyone. I have worked with outsiders and with people from the film industry and everyone has their own amounts of struggle. Sometimes I see him (points to Varun) going through certain things and I am like ‘oh my god, I don’t go through the stuff he has to go through’. And then of course I understand what it is to be someone who doesn’t really have that much support in terms of understanding what’s going on or someone to go to for real good advice, but then you learn along the way as well. All of us do. Everyone is on a different journey.
Honestly, at the end of the day it is the audience that embraces you. You can be whoever you are. The audience doesn’t discriminate based on whether you are an outsider or not and that is the proof of whether you’ve made it or not.
Varun: I think she is a massive example of a girl from another country, and if the audience has accepted her then it shows what the audience’s power is. It is really crazy how many people don’t even realise that Jacqueline is from Sri Lanka.

Rwitoban: All three of you are supremely fit...

Jaqueline: Taapsee is the fittest.

Rwitoban: What is your fitness mantra? Any trend you are following now? You do Pilates, you do…

Jacqueline: Pole dancing (laughs). I dance a lot. I do a lot of different forms of dance. I keep my cardio up. I try to eat as healthy as I can except when I have pizzas (laughs). Varun just gyms. 
Varun: Ya, I gym a lot…
Jacqueline: And eats a lot of chicken.
Varun: And yes I like to have protein. You know it is part and parcel when I need to get ready for a shoot or I know I need to take my shirt off, then I’ll follow a process or whatever. Otherwise I am quite chilled. I mean I have come here and eaten how many cupcakes in the past? I think the mantra is don’t eat the cupcakes in t2!
Taapsee: I play. I play squash. I hate gyms. I only joined the gym when I had to prepare for Judwaa, and now I am off it again. I enjoy playing.
Jacqueline: You know we were in the gym in Mauritius. It is so funny. I was in the gym, we had the bikini shoot the next day, and Taapsee is downstairs in the restaurant and from the gym you can see the restaurant. Taapsee is enjoying herself at the restaurant and has not gone to the gym the whole day, okay? Word has got around that Jackie is in the gym (Taapsee starts laughing). Ten minutes later, Taapsee is there (laughs).
Taapsee: (Still laughing) I am like ‘main thora hokey aati hoon’.
Varun: Seriously you were like really running and I was thinking like ‘What should I do now? Should I also go and run?’ (All three crack up)
Jacqueline: Everyone motivates each other. She motivated me when she was being very careful with her food.
Varun:I think it really helps with the food when you are in a very fit team. So each of us was ordering really fit food. Also it keeps my dad in check.
Jacqueline: Oh ya, my goodness!
Varun: Thank god for that!

The Varun-Jacqueline-Taapsee trio make us.... Tell t2@abp.in

Pictures: Rashbehari Das and Pabitra Das