What a Gul

Ervell E. Menezes catches up with Gul Panag, who is making waves at IFFI with her film
Summer 2007

In Summer 2007, Gul Panag plays a medical student, whose rural posting turns into a soul-searching journey

Tall, slim and ravishingly beautiful, Gul Panag needs no introduction. Her brilliant portrayal of a medico in Summer 2007 made her a top priority personality at IFFI. So catching up with her just before the presentation of her film at the VIP lounge was top priority for me.

Why the pet name Mother T in the film, you ask her. "Mother T is Mother Teresa" she declares and immediately gets into her character of Vishaka. "She’s an absolute do-gooder, good at heart and she gets deeply involved in the farmers’ suicide issue," she goes on and explains that of the group of five, she was the only one slated for a rural semester. The others were just using the trip as an excuse to go to nearby Goa.

Wearing a black blouse that showed her figure to advantage, 28-year-old Gul Panag looked cool and very much at home. She then touches briefly on some anecdotes in the film which made her fit the role of a medico like a glove. She agreed that the hep abbreviations and the slang helped to portray the spoilt kids. But they feel guilty that they are the privileged lot after breaking the rules.

About the film, Gul feels it was a marketing disaster. "In the old days, a film went by three parameters, first the star cast, second the strength of the film and third the marketing. Today, it is only two factors, the film and marketing 50-50. By releasing it at matinee shows it didn’t get the right (thinking person’s) audience. It needed prime time," she goes on close to showing more than a trace of anger.

She also speaks of her close association with director Suhail Tatari and since she was in his first TV production, she decided to do the same for his first feature film. It is a partnership of six years. Tatari who then joined us agreed on the poor marketing.

No, Gul did not go to drama school. At the age of 18 she studied theatre in London and when she returned near automatically moved into the acting field. Oh yes, she also won the Miss India contest in 1999. In Bollywood, her films include Dhoop, (2003), Jurm (2005), Dor (2006), Manorama Six Feet Under , Summer 2007 (2008) and Hello (2008).

It was time to go for the presentation so we had to cut short but in that brief span she did come across as a committed professional who also has a human side like the character she played so well in Summer 2007.