Khoya Khoya Chand role my most glamorous yet: Soha
Subhash K. Jha

Shiney Ahuja and Soha Ali Khan in Khoya Khoya Chand

Soha Ali Khan says she enjoyed working in Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya Chand. It has been her most glamorous role till date, she says. "For me personally it was a beautiful and unique experience. The past is always exciting. It was so much fun dressing up for this role. This was my most glamorous role to date," Soha said in an interview. Soha said she had to work hard for the role and spent four months improving her command over Urdu. Excerpts :

You mean after Rituparno Ghosh’s Antar Mahal. But they are two completely different eras. I love going back in time. That’s why I studied history. Even when I take off my makeup and wear a pair of jeans people say I belong to a different era.

Sudhir Mishra is definitely inspired by them. But the central romance between my character and Shiney Ahuja’s is simply reminiscent of all romances in the film industry in the 1950s. You could say my character is a professional colleague of Waheeda Rehman.

My mother would be a generation removed from my character. My mother would probably have grown up watching my character from Khoya Khoya Chand. My mom thinks I look like her only in passing. But everyone thinks I look a lot like her.

That’s a narrow place to be in. It slots you as serious and arty. I’m a fun person. I like to make people laugh. And I’d like to do that on screen. But there aren’t too many comic roles written for female leads.

I’m spunky. Sudhir Mishra’s female characters are very strong. They do cry. It’s liberating to be a female protagonist in Sudhir’s cinema.

Not too many. In Ahista Ahista I was repressed. Khoya Khoya Chand is my first author-backed film. I had to do a lot of preparation — from learning to ride a horse to sword fighting to a classical dancing and a sexy cabaret number.

That was my brief. That was something I had never done. I had to drop my inhibitions completely. So far one did such things in the privacy of the bedroom. I had great fun doing it.

I didn’t connect so easily with that era. Although my mom was an actress in the 1960s I haven’t watched that many films from the 1950s. I found the language archaic. For this role I spent four months with an Urdu teacher. But the minute I got on to the sets Sudhir asked me to forget what I had been taught. Because my character was being groomed into stardom she had to speak with the faults. In fact, many times I had to consciously speak incorrectly. But then when my character shot for the film within the film I was able to speak correctly.

For me, it was a beautiful and unique experience. The past is always exciting. It was so much fun dressing up for this role. This was my most glamorous role to date. — IANS

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