Sara on her ‘Atrangi Re’ character: I am not rebellious like Rinku

New Delhi, Dec 5 Sara Ali Khan, who is recently in the capital to promote her movie ‘Atrangi Re’, seemed quite confident and her excitement reflected when she said: “Mai Atrangi hoon (I am Atrangi).”

Sara is hopeful of attention from the audience that she failed to get in ‘Love Aaj Kal 2’. She expressed her gratitude for director Aanand L. Rai, saying: “This opportunity came to me at the right time. After ten days of ‘Kedarnath’, I was on the sets of ‘Atrangi Re’. It was great because people didn’t like ‘Love Aaj Kal’ and I am working for the audience and there was no point in getting depressed. You need to push yourself and that is what Aanand ji did for me.”

Sara further opened up about playing ‘Rinku’ and how she related with her character. “We both are confident people whose confidence even masks their inner vulnerability. But at the same place we are different. I am not rebellious by nature. I will not break the bottles or run away 21 times. I have a very supportive family. I can never dance at my husband’s marriage. And of course, I can’t speak in a Bihari accent.”

It was not easy for Sara to get into the skin of her character but she believes that one should not judge the character. “The most important thing while doing a film is you should not judge your character. That is what Aanand ji told me. He made me fall in love with my on-screen character ‘Rinku’. And once you understand life, you know there is no right or wrong or black and white always. So, you cannot judge everything and that is what I learned and realised while doing this movie.”

The most difficult thing for her is to learn the Bihari accent. She shared: “It was not at all easy. When you go on the sets while doing such movies it is never a cake walk. It is not just about learning the accent but you need to understand the body language, dialogue and dialect so perfectly and effortlessly that while you are on the sets, you just think about the particular scene and nothing else comes to your mind.”

The actress recalled shooting in Varanasi and adds: “We did the shooting for the Bihar portion in Banaras and it was so beautiful. I used to travel in the morning for shooting and keep looking at those fields. Whenever I was free, I just went for Ganga aarti and visited Kashi Vishwanath. Then, we shot in Madurai and it was just amazing. I love the food here and enjoyed having those idli and all. Then we came to Delhi and it was so tiring to travel to shooting locations early in the morning at 4 a.m. Overall this was the most memorable shooting experience for me.”

The actress, who stars opposite actors Dhanush and Akshay Kumar, shared that working with them is only a learning process and there is no competition. “You know Akshay Kumar is a superstar, Dhanush is a National Award winner, so there is no competition obviously, there is only inspiration and learning. But on sets we are all Aanand ji’s children and characters in his world. I am not Sara but ‘Rinku’ and Dhanush is just ‘Vishu’ on the sets.”

According to her, every woman in today’s generation will relate with ‘Rinku’: “I think she is very relatable to today’s woman. She is loud and assertive. She is not apologetic and clearly says what she wants in life. She is not doing any feminist ‘andolan’ but she knows how to express her thoughts. I really find it amazing the way she says that I want both without any apprehension or hesitation.”

Aanand L. Rai’s directorial ‘Atrangi Re’ featuring Akshay Kumar, Dhanush and Sara Ali Khan will be released on December 24 on Disney+ Hotstar.