We continue the tete-a-tete session with Lafangey Parindey stars Deepika and Neil….

How was your experience with the new artists? They have weird names like Chaddi, Deisel, Gulkand and Tina!

Deepika: None of us have met before, I knew only Namit (Chaddi) briefly. But from the first day, we got along as if we knew them all our lives!

Neil: All of them have given such stellar performances. When we were together, we became such good friends that I never felt like there was a camera and a setup around us, we just felt that we were told to go and live in a certain way and we did that.

Deepika: If anything, they all have helped us enhance our performances.

How was the experience with Dada (Pradeep Sarkar, the director)?

Neil: Dada makes an audio board of his entire film. We would initially never understand why he would do so much detailing before the shoot. I would wonder why he made an audio board, which would limit us and time our dialogues. But then that was the mistake! Not to realize that even that is a way of making a film, and was very important. We instantly understood the entire film, our characters with so much depth! We actually lived the film before we went and shot it.

Deepika: For a good 6 months, we lived our characters. We had started our readings, we knew our dialogues by heart, we knew which scenes came after which scene. That was only because of Dada’s way of shooting that helped us so much! We used to crib on those days, because sometimes Dada even made us dub without shooting scenes! We would spend the whole day with him at his office basically. But we understand now that it was needed because we needed to get used to the language. At the end of the day Lafangey Parindey is set in a different world after all.

Neil: Filmmakers have not touched this world for some time now and that’s what makes LP stand out.

Deepika, Dada has been making women oriented films, whether it is Parineeta or Laaga Chunari Mein Daag. Now this movie has this character of a blind skater, how do you feel about playing this character?

Pinky’s character is a girl who is very modern. The way she thinks, the kind of ambitions and her personality is like the girls today. Pinky wants so much from life, she wants to get out of the world she lives in. So it was very similar to the girls of today. But I have to say that playing blind and being a skater was definitely the most challenging part. For a director and an actor, from the day you start shooting, you start wondering how you’re going to do it. I will trust my director and say that he will make me perform. But I was definitely nervous.

What is the story behind you running behind chickens etc.?

Deepika: This has physically been the most challenging film for me. For one I had to learn how to skate, then I had to act blind, then I had to hold a pigeon, run behind a chicken, get bitten by a dead fish don’t ask me how, fall a zillion times and finally hurt my knee. My knee still hasn’t healed, by the way! Oh and also fall into a ditch face in, get knocked over by an auto and hit a lamppost. I still have the mark where the fish bit. It didn’t stop bleeding. It took away my skin from three places.

Is Lafangey Parindey ki reel pe haath rakh ke kasam khao ki yeh stunts tumne khud kiye hain!

Neil: Main Neil Nitin Mukesh is reel pe haath rakhe kasam khata hun ke yeh stunts maine kiye hain. Lekin they were safe. They were coordinated by our stunt director Shyam Kaushal who gave us professional training. But I would like to take take this opportunity to say to the viewers that please don’t try these stunts at home. They are not safe at all.

How was the experience of doing those stunts yourself?

Neil: Extremely entertaining to be honest! I have seen the Mumbai bike culture myself. I stay in a part of Mumbai, the town side, where bikers are prevalent. The Chowpati area where you will see biker boys are doing their stunts, doing their wheelies, zipping across, showing off not realizing they are risking their lives. I had an experience last year and now I am doing a film on this! So it was quite interesting to recall that experience of mine and put it on screen. It was rather safe because of the action director. But now that I’ve seen it on screen, I won’t do it again. You’re in a different frame of mind when you’re in front of the screen and ready to try out new things. Plus you know you have a good action team behind you, people around you who will take care of you if needed. But never in my life will I do it again.

Deepika – what are the three things that are common between Neil and Nandu.

Neil: Very simple! Good hearted, good looking and shy.

Deepika: Bingo!

Neil – Three things that are common between Deepika and Pinky?

Deepika: Stunning.

Neil: Definitely. She made me fall in love with her – on screen, don’t get scared!

Deepika: Ambitious and ...

Neil: Strong hearted. I love her dimples. I hid a coin in them haha.

Deepika: What rubbish!