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In a journo’s shoes
Just like the life of an actor fascinates the common man, including yours truly, the journalist, the life of a journalist fascinates actors. After a series of leading ladies of Bollywood playing a journo on screen — Preity Zinta in Lakshay, Rani Mukerji in No One Killed Jessica, Aditi Rao Hydari in Rockstar, Nargis Fakri in Madras Café, Kareena Kapoor in Satyagraha — pretty lady Amrita Rao joins the bandwagon.
Just like the life of an actor fascinates the common man, including yours truly, the journalist, the life of a journalist fascinates actors. After a series of leading ladies of Bollywood playing a journo on screen — Preity Zinta in Lakshay, Rani Mukerji in No One Killed Jessica, Aditi Rao Hydari in Rockstar, Nargis Fakri in Madras Café, Kareena Kapoor in Satyagraha — pretty lady Amrita Rao joins the bandwagon.
Donning the role of a journalist for her upcoming film — Singh Saab The Great — Rao, in town on Thursday, salutes all female journalists.
“I’m playing the role of a Hindi television news reporter, who also narrates the movie’s story. Media has always played a crucial role in my life. When I got to play this character, I realised the importance and power of the media and how difficult the life of a journalist is, especially female journalists,” says she.
It was not easy to get into the shoes of a journalist, says the actor. “The director told me to watch Hindi news channels to get into the character. You will also notice that I have an eastern UP accent in my dialogues.”
Despite being in the industry for more than a decade now, her list of projects is not a long one. On this, she is quick to add, “See, I am not choosy, but one has to be a little careful when you don’t gave a godfather to guide you. But, I make sure I do at least one film a year. There were a couple of projects that I signed, but they couldn’t get released. I had to miss a few good films because of them, such as Shyam Benegal’s Well Done Abba and Jehangir Surti’s Aa Dekhe Zara.
Luckily, this year I had three releases — Jolly LLB, Satyagraha and now Singh Saab The Great.”
If she weren’t an actor, she would probably have been in advertising or marketing, she shares. “If not that, I would have been an RJ. When I go for interviews to radio stations, the life of a radio jockey fascinates me, ” says Rao, before sharing her dream role, “I want to play the heroine in a ’50s black and white movie, opposite Ranbir Kapoor.”
