Priya Anand with Pulkit Samrat in Fukrey

She was Sridevi’s niece-cum-confidante in English Vinglish and the love interest of Jackky Bhagnani in Rangrezz. Friday film Fukrey sees her in the role of a Delhiite romancing Pulkit Samrat.

Fukrey is your third Bollywood film, how comfortable are you in Hindi?

I am extremely comfortable in Hindi. I can speak Tamil, Telugu, English and Hindi fluently. Language has never been an issue for me. Fukrey was challenging as I was the only person in the cast and crew who had never stayed in Delhi. As a kid I had been there but just for few days; I have never stayed there. And I have this American accent that required a lot of concentration while delivering dialogues. Fukrey is a totally method Hindi film and it kind of kept me on my toes.

After working in Tamil and Telugu films, what difference did you find in Bollywood?

I don’t really see the difference. For me the biggest reason for that is I am at ease with all the languages. Most technicians in Bollywood are from the south. Films from the south are remade in Hindi and Hindi films are remade in Tamil and Telugu. As India is becoming global, we as actors are moving beyond the whole boundary thing.

The music launch of Fukrey was quite a hatke event with the male leads [Pulkit Samrat, Ali Fazal and Manjot Singh] coming on horseback and the girls [Richa Chadda, Vishakha Singh and Priya] entering with a band. How was the whole experience?

It was awesome! These kinds of promotions are so unconventional. I see the difference between Bollywood and south in the promotional activities. We don’t have such promotional events in south.

The film seems to be full on fukrapanti. Did you get to enjoy it as well while playing a coy girl?

Only in the film (am I a coy girl)! Usually I have played roles where I am kind of a chatterbox. Here I am Priya, a 17-year-old curious little girl. This film transported me back to the time when we used to hide things from our parents. I also got to work with really young people. In the south, I have worked with big stars. After so long I got to work with people who are new to the industry, when they are really not stars. It was an amazing experience.

Was there a French kiss between you and Pulkit that has been chopped off? How comfortable were you shooting the scene?

There was nothing like that in the film. I was totally misquoted.

How was it working with Sridevi in English Vinglish?

She is amazing. Not many people get an opportunity to meet their idol. Not only did I get to work with her but I also got to know my idol personally. When I was young I used to write her letters and draw sketches of her. Now we have a nice relation that we share off-screen. When we worked together (in the Gauri Shinde film), I got to know that there was so much in common between us!

Is it more comfortable working with a female director, given that you have worked with three?

I think female directors are very comfortable with me so they pick me for their films. It’s an exciting time for cinema and moreover they are not making the typical kind of films usually made by female filmmakers. They are not feminist kind of stories and they are working on different genres. Like Aishwarya’s (Dhanush) Vai Raja Vai is a romcom and Kiruthiga’s (Udhayanidhi) Vanakkam Chennai is a comedy.

What next?

I have three upcoming Tamil films — Vanakkam Chennai opposite Shiva, Arima Nambi opposite Vikram Prabhu and Vai Raja Vai with Gautham Karthik.