I read t2 when I am in Calcutta” says Deeksha Seth. The 24-year-old, whose family currently resides at Judges Court Road in Alipore, has spent some of her growing-up years in the city. “My father works with ITC and every couple of years, he would get posted to Calcutta. I keep going there very often to meet my parents. Calcutta is home,” says Deeksha, who has acted in Tamil and Telugu films. The alumnus of Modern High School for Girls makes her Bolly debut with Lekar Hum Deewana Dil opposite Raj Kapoor’s grandson Armaan Jain. A t2 chat…

How did Lekar Hum Deewana Dil happen?

I had come to Bombay for some work and between things, I gave an audition for this film. After that, they called me back the same day and the audition process went on for a bit… in fact, for three months, because the director (Arif Ali) wanted to see how much chemistry we can come up with together and to be convinced that we work as a pair. Finally, after many, many days, we were told that we were on (smiles).

The promo shows you as this headstrong girl, full of spunk. Is your character in the film anything like you?

My character is called Karishma Shetty and when Arif Sir was giving me a narration of the script for the first time, I felt I could really connect with the character on an emotional level. In the sense, the kind of person she is emotionally and the highs and lows in terms of her moods, I could understand completely because I am a lot like that. She’s this Bombay girl who lives and studies in south Bombay, but comes from this very traditional Mangalorean family. She’s a fun, normal college girl who’s chilled and full of spunk… very pragmatic and she knows what she wants from life. Then her parents tell her that she needs to get married at age 20 and that’s when she feels she’s been pushed into a corner and she rebels.

With Saif Ali Khan as producer and A.R. Rahman scoring the music, this seems like a dream debut for any newcomer…

Yes, 100 per cent. I couldn’t have asked for a better debut. Because of the names that are associated with this film, I have always felt very encouraged. When I got to know Rahman Sir is doing the music, it felt so amazing because we all know that he doesn’t do so many movies and if he’s said ‘yes’ to the film, you feel assured that there is something about the film that made him want to be on board. There are so many big names backing the project… it’s such a good feeling for any newcomer.

How was it sharing screen space with Armaan?

Armaan was just another co-star for me… on set, it never crossed my mind what family he comes from… we were just co-stars trying to give it our best in every shot. Because we spent so much time together at workshops and classes before we started shooting the film, we got to know each other really well and that really helped us a lot during shoot. He became a friend. We had a very open relationship where we would talk to each other if we were having trouble approaching a scene.

You have quite a few Tamil and Telugu films to your credit while Armaan is a rank newcomer. Did you give him any tips while filming?

The thing is that Armaan started out as an assistant director (in films like My Name Is Khan and Student of the Year) and I have acted… so we have both been on sets before, but in different capacities. We were really not in a position to give any tips or advice to each other because we really don’t have that much knowledge between the two of us! (Laughs out loud) But otherwise, I would give him tips on how to look fresh in each shot while he would advise me on the technical aspects of filmmaking.

In an industry full of newcomers, how will you create your space?

I really believe that at the end of the day, we are in this industry because we have come to act and we really need to concentrate on acting. The rest of the things that come along with it are not that important.

D FOR DEEKSHA

Age: 24
Birthday: February 14
Sunsign: Aquarius
Studied at: Modern High School for Girls
Lives in: Judges Court Road, Alipore
Debut: Vedam (Telugu) in 2010

Priyanka Roy

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