In the latest Bollywood comedy Dolly Ki Doli, Sonam Kapoor plays a con. Her character, Dolly, woos men and gets them to marry her – only to run away with the money and jewellery shortly after the wedding. Produced by Arbaz Khan Productions, the film also stars Varun Sharma, Rajkummar Rao and Pukit Samrat. Kapoor and the producer Arbaaz Khan turned up on Radio Mirchi this week to discuss the film. Here's an excerpt:
Host Prakruti: Dolly Ki Dolly sounds like a fun film and as the producer you seemed to have spent generously.
Arbaaz Khan: Whatever the film’s requirement was, we’ve tried to do justice to that. It’s a very entertaining film. It has a very novel subject and great characters. And the characters have been beautifully essayed. Sonam is outstanding in the film. Varun [Sharma], Raj [Rajkummar Rao], Pulkit [Samrat] they’ve all done an excellent job and that’s what really enhances the film. When you see the actors take the script and characters to another level that makes it a lot of fun.
Host: Your character makes a fool out men. Now we’ve heard there was a woman in real-life who did this.
Sonam Kapoor: Apparently. Our director [debut for Abhishek Dogra] said he read an article about this girl in North India who was doing this. And I just found out there was a TV show on a similar subject. So there are references to a girl and her doli [palanquin used in Indian wedding ceremonies to carry the bride] going around conning these men. It’s out there, but it’s not talked about. There’s a great dialogue by Dolly in film, where she says : “Yaar, at least mein ek din ke liya appako lootke chali jathi hu, puri life me tho nahi loothi hu” [at least I only steal from you for one day and leave, I don’t steal from you your whole life]. So, in a way she’s doing a social service.
Host: A Robin Hood.
SK: Sort of. A Robin Hood who keeps the money for herself. Men make fools of women, there need to be women who make fools of men.
Host: In this film there are three men. You use different ways to make fools of them. Do you ever fall in love with anyone?
SK: You have to watch the film.
Host: I don’t mean just these three. Has Dolly ever been in love with anyone?
SK: The best thing about Dolly is that she is very unapologetic about herself. She is very comfortable in her skin.
Host: You’re that way, too.
SK: Yes I am, but not in that way. I’m a little more idealistic. I see hearts popping in the air all the time. She is not like that. She’s very practical. She’s a small-town girl, she had no choice but to become chunt [crafty or deceitful] and she’s enjoying that. There’s no guilt about it. There’s no “I don’t know why I’m like this?” No darkness. She is like, ‘this is who I am’ and she’s quite OK with it and that’s what I love about her, there’s no angst. And even if there is angst, she uses it [to her advantage] and I think that’s amazing about Dolly.
Host: What’s the accent or dialect used in the film? Is it North Indian or could it be from anywhere in the country?
AK: Not particularly North Indian. But the premise of our film begins there, so there are a few dialects from North India that are used by certain characters. But it is basically a Hindi-Urdu kind of, Hindustani film. Everyone will understand it. But it is slightly tilted towards North India.
Host: How was it for you Sonam? Did you have to add anything special, learn anything new?
SK: With every character, Dolly changes. For example, with Sonu Sarawat, which is Raj’s [Rajkummar Rao] character, she is pretending to be an army general’s daughter. So there her English and Hindi are clean. Even though she is North Indian, because they travel so much, they don’t actually have an accent. Then when I’m with Varun’s character, Manjot, it’s a little more Punjabi, a little more Delhi, which I’ve done before in Delhi 6. With Robin’s [Pulkit Samrat] character, I’m Dolly, because he’s a cop. And for Dolly’s character, I had a very boyish way of speaking, like a local girl. She can be from anywhere because she has travelled so much. And we don’t want you to know where this girl is from. The Hindi is correct but there is a lot of local tone to the way she speaks and there is a bit of North Indian touch to her because she’s from there.
Host: I love that in the Dolly Ki Doli poster, which tells a story all by itself, there's wickedness in Sonam's eyes.
AK: Her character in the film is one who does not care too much about what is happening around her, or in her life, and she’s a very confident girl. I think that attitude comes off very strongly.
Host: Were there workshops?
AK: There were workshops and readings. There were script readings and each of them developed their own way of how they wanted to interpret the character. Sonam worked out how she would like to dress for each – Dolly has different facets – so she worked out how she was going to interpret each of them, how she was going to dress, how she was going to talk. And then we had readings and we met.
SK: We had two to three readings. But the main thing that we did, which was amazing, was that all of us – the four or five of us – basically we got together in a small room and instead of reading the script played out the movie in our language.
Host: So you just spoke with each other.
SK: Yes, but as a movie. As if we didn’t have the script and we were really these people. I think that gave us more of a grip, because everybody is there for just that episode – you don’t know what’s the past or the future. This is just 15, 20 days in Dolly’s life. This film is not about what happened to whom and how that affects someone else. It’s just 15 or 20 days in someone’s life. It’s quite an incredible way of looking at it. We have this exercise as actors, when we learn, where we give each character an animal form. I really thought about what is Dolly? For me she was a cat. Whatever happens – cats are the most alert and the most aware, but they seem very lazy and laidback and there are the nine lives also – some how or the other they always find their feet. There is this scene where the police are coming and she [Dolly] just gets up and walks out. Everything she does is very cool. She’s not hyper. She’s this femme fatal.
Host: The songs are a lot of fun, too. Phatte Tak Nachna is doing very well on Radio Mirchi. And the song Babaji Ka Thullu, which just released, has an interesting story? There Kapil's "babaji ka thullu [comedian Kapil Sharma's catch phrase, which he uses to say "you got nothing"] and now there's Dolly's Babaji Ka Thullu?
AK: Concept wise it works for us because all the men who she takes for a ride – makes them a bridegroom and then runs away with their money – what do they get? Babaji Ka Thullu [Nothing]. So basically that's the concept. All these men fall for her scheme, have big hopes, but Dolly is very smart. She's got them all trapped and gives them Babji Ka Thullu and says thank you very much, bye bye.
Host: So which is your favourite song?
AK: At different stages you start liking different songs. Right now, my favourite is Mere Naina Kafir. That’s a beautiful song.
SK: Since Phatte Tak Nachna is my first full-on dance song I like that song. No one gave me the opportunity to dance this much. And I had fun doing it. Hopefully I get to dance more. I'm dancing more in Prem Ratan [Prem Ratan Dhan Payo].
AK: No tall claim, but the music in this film is really really very nice. Sajid-Wajid [music composers] have done a great job. And it’s a typical Bollywood, Hindi-film album, with a dance number, an item song, a romantic song, a promotional song, it has a title track – so it’s a complete album.
Host: So what's so special about Babaji Ka Thullu?
SK: The music video was shot very well. Our first associate director shot this song and directed the video, it’s been choreographed by Mudassar [Khan] and we’re all wearing these really funky clothes. It’s a really fun song.
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