Preparing in the dark

For role in Gandhi To Hitler, Neha Dhupia had little information on dictator’s love interest Eva Braun to reference her act.

With Gandhi To Hitler set to release towards the end of this month, actor Neha Dhupia will return to the big screen in her much talked about role of Eva Braun, Hitler’s love interest, who she admittedly knows not much about. “Very little has been said and done about Eva. Whenever we tried to look her up, we found more information on Hitler and less on her. Because of her association with him, it’s very hard for her to have an identity of her own,” explains Neha, adding, “There’s a certain amount of flamboyance and at the same time, shyness associated with women of that time. There was also a huge amount of romanticism in Eva. She wanted to be there for her love. So keeping the emotions in place was very important.”

HT Image

Explaining the effort that went into moulding the character without knowing much about it, she says, “We’ve all sat together to tried

and create her look — the director, stylist, make-up artistes and even the art director. I hope I’ll be able to pull it off because it’s not a fictitious character, and is much more difficult to play. My fears and anxieties are not so much about box-office collections as they are about how the audience will react to my work.”

The film will see Dhupia dressed in classic western silhouettes to suit the Braun’s character. It’s a completely new look for the actor, who has been photographed in a number of contrasting looks of late. Recently released pictures show her wearing thick glasses and Anna Hazare T-shirts, which she hopes will “speak more than a million words”. Elsewhere, she’s sporting an edgy, slightly gothic look in the new advertisements for Police, a brand that she has just signed up to endorse.

Ask Neha how she shuffles between the multiple personas and she simply smiles, “Looking good is a full-time profession. When you’re in the limelight, you have to be a little ahead of the curve.” For the Phas Gaye Re Obama actor, up next is the role of a back-up dancer in Saurabh Shukla’s feature called Pappu Can’t Dance Saala. Has she been taking extensive dance lessons for the same? “No,” she insists, “It’s more about the attitude than the actual skill itself.”