‘We are the kids from the ’90s who have grown up watching Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol romancing on Suraj Hua Maddham.’
‘We are also the same people who text our partner and tell them, ‘I am breaking up with you’.’
Photograph: Kind courtesy Naila Grrewal/Instagram
Last seen in Netflix’s hit series Mamla Legal Hai, Naila Grrewal is now eagerly anticipating the release of Ishq Vishk Rebound.
Her journey has been filled with numerous auditions and rejections but she believes it was all worth it in the end.
“One should never fear rejections. Braving rejections can make you a Manoj Bajpayee or a Shah Rukh Khan one day,” Naila tells Rediff.com Contributor Mohnish Singh.
Ishq Vishk enjoys a great fan base. Do you worry if the audience would accept the new film?
I don’t think I signed the film with any baggage.
When four of us (including fellow cast members Pashmina Roshan, Rohit Saraf and Jibraan Khan) came together to became part of Ishq Vishk Rebound, we thought there was no point in having any pressure of the previous film.
At least I wanted to look at it with a fresh perspective because the world has changed completely.
Today’s audience has changed.
The way we express love has changed.
The acceptance of love has changed.
Had I kept Ishq Vishk in mind while working on Ishq Vishk Rebound, I would have messed up.
Our intention has never been to emulate the previous film. We have made a completely new film for the audience to enjoy.
What is your idea of love?
I feel our generation is stuck between two worlds.
We are the kids from the ’90s who have grown up watching Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol romancing on Suraj Hua Maddham.
At the same time, we are also the same people who text our partner and tell them, ‘I am breaking up with you.’
Gen Z’s way of expressing and emoting love is different.
We are constantly swiping left and right on dating apps.
I can send you a Snapchat and break up with you.
Having said that, I strongly believe that most of us still gravitate more towards the ’90s’ love.
I am looking for that someone who stays by my side throughout, someone I can grow old with.
I still want my sari‘s pallu to wave in the breeze and my man walks up to me in slow motion.
IMAGE: Jibraan Khan, Pashmina Roshan, Rohit Saraf and Naila Grrewal in Ishq Vishk Rebound.
From being an outsider to working on a film like Ishq Vishk Rebound, how has the journey been so far?
It’s been very challenging.
I am from Delhi. Whatever work I got in the beginning, right from Tamasha (2015), I got while in Delhi.
I was studying at LSR (Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi University) and I would participate in stage plays and street plays.
So I was doing this play and in the crowd was someone from the casting team of Tamasha.
After the play ended, he walked up to me and said, ‘There is a film by Imtiaz Ali and you have to do a part alongside Ranbir Kapoor.’
I was on cloud nine.
Though it was a brief role, I got to learn a lot on the sets.
I realised that if I really wanted to start a career in acting, I have to work really, really hard.
Later, I bagged a cameo alongside Ayushmann Khurrana in Bareilly Ki Barfi.
Since I was still in college, I was not getting meaty parts.
I think my meatiest part was in Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad.
He made sure that each and every character had their own character arc; it was not just about Taapsee Pannu.
Coming to your question, the challenges, of course, are many.
I have faced rejections every second day. Initially, I had no idea how to deal with rejections.
I had to tune my mind to understand that if I wanted to be in this business, I needed to know how to deal with rejections.
If you don’t know how to deal with failures, you won’t ever know how to deal with success.
I started telling my mind that it’s not me, sometimes the vision of a maker is different and you don’t align with that vision.
No matter how good of an actor you are, if your personality does not align with the vision that the director has in his mind, it is not going to work out for you.
It took me a long time to get to the point where I stopped doubting myself every time I would give an audition.
IMAGE: Naila, Rohit, Jibraan, Pashmina on the sets of Ishq Vishk Rebound. Photograph: Kind courtesy Pashmina Roshan/Instagram
Do you ever bother about your screentime in a project?
I think whatever work you get, irrespective of its length, give your best to it.
I did the same in Thappad and in Mamla Legal Hai. Similarly, with Ishq Vishk Rebound.
Your job as an actor is to bring authenticity to your character.
Whether it is a 10 minute role in a film or the entire film, you have to add your own flavour to it so that the audience says, ‘Waah, mazaa aa gaya.’
Is there any actor whose journey really inspired you?
Manoj Bajpayee.
Since we are talking about struggles, let me share a fascinating story about Manoj sir.
He used to sit for NSD’s (National School of Drama) entrance exam every year and would fail each time.
Meanwhile, he kept doing plays side by side.
By the time, he sat for the exam fifth or sixth time, he was so experienced that one of the professors told him to become an assistant professor at the institute.
So I believe, one should never fear rejections.
Braving rejections can make you a Manoj Bajpayee or a Shah Rukh Khan one day.
Photograph: Kind courtesy Naila Grrewal/Instagram
How important is to have a thick skin if you want to work in show business?
That’s very important if you want to survive in this industry because you will find all sorts of people here — people who will put you on a pedestal and people who will pull you down.
Anybody writes anything anywhere, and that may affect you in many ways.
You should be so thick-skinned that it should not affect you, if someday anybody is calling you Madhuri Dixit or treating you as nothing.
You have to be so level headed that all that matters to you is your work and your performance.
