“I’M GOING FROM A PHASE OF NO WORK TO WORKING NONSTOP NOW”

FLORA SAINI 

In this exclusive telephonic interview for Cinema TV Today , FLORA SAINI who plays the lead in the forthcoming ShemarooME Box Office OTT release on 11th September,REGARDS & PEACE tells JYOTHI VENKATESH that though she was very conscious about her stretch marks due to her weight loss, Ramgopal Verma made her understand that all these flaws are what make her sexy and beautiful .

 

What was your first reaction on being offered this role of a temptress in the film Regards and Peace?

I have known Sanjay Amar, the director of Regards and Peace, since a long time. We tried to collaborate earlier but as luck would have it things never panned out. As they say, destiny had something else in mind as Regards and Peace was ultimately the project we worked together on. He is a brilliant film maker, a fast worker and a wonderful human being. He’s been persistent about working with me and offered me this role when I wasn’t doing great career- wise, and such things really matter to me.

How difficult is it for an actor to refuse a project?

I generally don’t say no to anybody on their face. Also, nowadays people have started getting the hint themselves. For example, with the advent of digital, many offers come my way that are similar to the kind of roles I have done in the past, but I subtly refuse them, citing the fact that I have already done such characters and I don’t want to be repetitive. People have also become wiser with experience to understand that a refusal doesn’t mean the end of the world. I remember a hilarious incident where I was asked to play the step mother to an actor elder to me, and my instant reaction was “Are you out of your mind”, and the poor casting guy ended up apologizing to me. I had done a South Indian film where I did play a step mother. The film went on to be so successful that I was offered the same role again and again for the next few years. I have been wary of taking such steps ever since.

 

 As an actor, are you happy with the way your career has progressed over the years?

God has been really very kind. A lot of people I had debuted with are no longer a part of the industry, and the fact that I am still here and going strong is a blessing. My super hit projects like Stree and the web series Gandi Baat are a testament to the fact that magic happens if you never give up. There was a time when there was dearth of work in my career and I had just random advertisements to boast of, but now with the advent of new age cinema and web series, content is story based rather than hero or heroine based.

Proceed!

Age is also no longer an obstacle either. Look at Sushmita and Bobby making fabulous comebacks on OTT. I keep telling everyone, just one Friday can change your life forever, and all you need to do is work hard on your craft. I got Stree through sheer coincidence, I was auditioning for an ad when I got interested in the other audition taking place, which led me to also give it a shot and eventually here we are today, with me having played none other than the title role of “Stree” herself. I believe everything is written from above in the end.

Would you say the web space is a boon for diligent artists like you?

Very much so! I started working in web series when it wasn’t even a trend and to be honest I didn’t even know much about this world. Earlier, web series were not as popular a career option as television or films, and very few people were aware of it. I started with a series called “Maid in India” for a platform called Web Talkies which ironically shut down later. But my clippings went viral on places like YouTube and Whatsapp, which gave me a lot of recognition. Look at someone like Sumeet Vyas who started from web and later starred opposite Kareena in Veere Di Wedding, or how Pankaj Tripathi became a household name after Mirzapur, so yes, web is a flourishing garden of talent and work. Take “Regards and Peace” itself, thanks to it being slated to air on ShemarooMe Box Office, an offbeat film like this gets massive exposure since ShemarooMe has a booming presence worldwide.

With Regards and Peace dropping on ShemarooMe Box Office, on September 11, do you think the future of cinema is online streaming ?

I personally do think online streaming is the future, especially after the novel Coronavirus scare. I don’t think many people, including myself, will be comfortable visiting theatres till a foolproof solution is not found for Covid. Secondly, platforms like ShemarooMe Box Office allow one to relax inside the four walls of his or her own house and watch content whenever they want, so there is a convenience and flexibility factor. Now that our country is slowly unlocking, people are busy with round the clock work and have less time to visit cinema halls, so when their home television itself offers all forms of entertainment it is a big relief. You can just log on to ShemarooMe Box Office at the end of a tiring day and unwind at leisure.

Coincidentally, your character in Regards and Peace is also named Flora!

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised myself on learning this. I met Sanjay at a Café called “Love and Latte” for this film, and to think of it our movie has a similar sounding name, “Regards and Peace”. He then revealed that my character is also named Flora since he thought it perfectly suited her ravishing beauty, and I was quite amazed by the coincidence. One thing that irks me is that women with a modern name (like Deepika was called Veronica in Cocktail), are usually portrayed as bold and carefree in Bollywood, and it’s weird that people are attaching stereotypes to names.

How easy or difficult was it for you to get into the skin of your character of Flora ?

Well, there was actually no time to wonder if the task at hand was easy or difficult. This film was shot in just a week and at breakneck speed, so there was no time to worry about the background noise, I had to just take a dive at the deep end. My house in the film is atop a mountain. I remember it was very chilly but a fun shoot. Sanjay always shoots his films very quickly and is quite a seasoned technician that way.

Name the five best films you’ve been a part of till date ?

Stree, Lakshmi, Dhanak, Love in Nepal and Guddu Ki Gun.

Among the web series you worked on, which would you choose as your top 5 ?

Inside Edge, Gandi Baat, Maid in India, Aisha: My Virtual Girlfriend and City of Dreams.

How do you feel when you look back at your journey from Love In Nepal till date ?

From Love in Nepal till today, I’ll call it a pretty big adventure as I’ve seen many ups and downs. There have been times I thought I’ll never work in this industry again, but when one’s heart and soul is clear, God looks after you. I’ve got to work on big projects like Stree, Gandi Baat and even had the chance to collaborate with someone as legendary as Nagesh Kukunoor not once but twice, I never imagined that such things would happen. I don’t have Godfathers who will make a film for me at the drop of a hat, and I’ve not made friends just for my career’s sake. I’m very old school that way, I believe in genuine emotions. There are so many projects I would have loved to be a part of, or at least audition for, but I’ve missed the train. Now, I’m going from a phase of no work to working nonstop.

You had a little setback when you changed your name !

There is a long story behind that. I had a bigger setback in the South film industry, and my whole look has changed since the old days when I worked in the South films and since then I’ve also changed my name. Often people are not able to even connect that I am the same person. Three days ago, I got a phone call from down south, the person at the other end didn’t even realise I had worked with him in the past and was really taken aback on learning I am the same girl who was called Asha. Being given a completely different name just overnight, was quite a startling change.

Do you have any reservations about partaking in explicit scenes ?

Initially I was hesitant, but I have matured enough to understand that if the script demands a certain bold scene and it is natural, there is no problem. I am also from an army background, so something like a swimming costume that is considered very bold in an industry like the South, was pretty casual for me since childhood. I was apprehensive about such scenes also because I was very chubby as a kid and hence a bit body conscious, but now I am very confident. In Gandi Baat for example, the scenes were shot so smartly and aesthetically that nobody on set was uncomfortable. Another incident that I remember is that I was very conscious about my stretch marks due to weight loss, but Ramgopal Verma made me understand that all these flaws are what make me sexy and beautiful. These scars and marks are no longer my headache now.

Are you working with Ekta again after Gandi Baat ?

I did partly shoot for a series, but the show somehow didn’t work out. The role was also in a similar zone to what I had done earlier, so never mind.