Prachi with Tusshar in Life Partner

After the runaway success of her debut film Rock On!!, Prachi Desai returns today with Life Partner. A t2 chat…

This time last year, you were very nervous before the release of Rock On!!. What are the jitters like for Life Partner?

Well, I am very nervous this time around too, but first-film jitters are always very different! There is a lot of excitement also because it’s been a year since Rock On!! and I want to see how the audience reacts to my performance in Life Partner. But with Rock On!! having done so well, and the fact that I got appreciated so much in my very first film, it puts a lot of pressure on me for Life Partner.

What is your role in Life Partner all about?

I play a role that is pretty close to what I am in real life. My character is also called Prachi. She hails from a royal family and is an educated and independent girl. Prachi is modern in her outlook, but has also had a traditional upbringing. It’s a very relatable character.

As everyone would have gauged from the promos, Life Partner is a romantic comedy, but addresses serious issues like compatibility and adjustment in a marriage. It talks about the fact that marriage is not a destination, but a journey. However, we haven’t got preachy-preachy at all. Life Partner is a hilarious take on these issues. The audience will come out of the film laughing.

Why the decision to follow up Rock On!! with a film like Life Partner?

After Rock On!!, there were a couple of films that I was on the verge of signing on, but ultimately they failed to materialise. You really can’t plan these things, especially in showbusiness. But honestly, I am very happy with the fact that Life Partner is my second film. I have always done serious roles, be it Bani in (television series) Kasamh Se or Sakshi in Rock On!! I wanted to break out of that image by doing a comic role and Life Partner was simply perfect. But yes, now on I will have to be much more careful in choosing my roles.

There are a number of prominent faces in Life Partner. How was the experience of working with them?

Most of my scenes are with Tusshar (Kapoor). Despite my long association with Balaji Telefilms and Ekta Kapoor, Tusshar and I hardly knew each other. We have just said ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ at a couple of parties, but bonded quite well while shooting for Life Partner. He is quite a prankster and good fun to be with. I didn’t have too many scenes with Fardeen (Khan) or Genelia (D’Souza), but we got along very well. And of course, Govinda is someone that I have grown up watching. So working with him was a dream come true for me.

You were apparently not comfortable doing certain scenes in the film…

I don’t really know why people are saying these things because I don’t really remember anything of this sort happening. See, I generally get uncomfortable doing a scene if there are too many people watching. It just disturbs my concentration and I start fumbling. So something of that sort might have happened and the whole issue has been blown out of proportion saying that I threw a fit when I had to do a bathtub scene. Nothing like that ever happened. Ask Tusshar!

Does it worry you that Life Partner is releasing on the same day as Kaminey?

I remember Rock On!! released with 4-5 other films, so I am pretty used to it already! But I think Kaminey and Life Partner are two very different films — Kaminey is slightly dark, while Life Partner is a light-hearted comedy. I am sure there are ready audiences for both. I am really looking forward to Kaminey myself. I hope both films do well.

What are your other releases this year?

I have just started shooting for Once Upon A Time In Mumbai in which I am cast opposite Emraan Hashmi. The film also stars Ajay Devgan and Kangana Ranaut and should be out by the end of the year.

Any plans of coming back totelevision?

I am quite happy with my film career, thank you!