Pooja Hegde talks about Mohenjo Daro, working with Hrithik and how she earned confidence

Pooja Hegde is living out a fairytale. The younger actor could not have dreamt of a extra celebrated debut. As Hrithik Roshan’s cherished in Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro, it’s nothing short of an epic unveiling. The Miss India contestant feels blessed. “It’s been greater than a decade since Deepika Padukone or Anushka Sharma had this kind of huge launch,” she says.
She plays princess Chaani in Mohenjo Daro. But it’s a individual that appears tailor made for the brand new-age actor. She famous, “According to Ashu sir, I become the whole thing that he had pictured for Chaani. His idea become to just be myself and now not act in any respect. That made my lifestyles less difficult.” Unlike Pooja, Chaani’s character is bound by using her situations and that’s what made the role difficult. She explains, “Chaani is suppressed because there’s a prophecy about her. They name her the Navlokini, which means the selected one. And the notion is that Chaani will usher in a new way of lifestyles in Mohenjo Daro. Everyone believes that she has magical powers. So when she steps out in public, she has to be elegant and accurate. She needs to be the Navlokini.” She provides, “But at heart she’s childlike and simply a person who wants to be nobody. She doesn’t want humans to realise her.”

Pooja has constantly been a Hrithik Roshan fan. After running with him she’s now observed a close pal in him. She shares, “When Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai had released my cousins have been raving approximately this new guy. They kept announcing, ‘He’s so hot!’ I too went wow! I couldn’t consider how good-looking he become. Now having worked with him I can call him a chum… it’s this type of special feeling.” She’s all reward for her celeb colleague. “You realize he’s so right down to earth. He has a big coronary heart,” she says hiding her blushes. Recalling her first meeting with Hrithik she says, “My first response was that he looks even higher in individual. Hrithik is a radical gentleman. He made me sense comfy and comfy. I became shy and frightened. He calmed me down. For a few cause he thought that I’m from the South. He was surprised to recognize I’m a Mumbai lady and that I had grown up in Versova. Just six years in the past I shifted to a brand new home
in Bandra.”

Ashutosh Gowariker’s spouse Sunita Gowariker (who’s additionally the manufacturer of Mohenjo Daro) noticed Pooja in a TV industrial with Ranbir Kapoor and that’s wherein the ball started out rolling. It turned into the director’s obsession with perfection that honed Pooja’s skills. “Ashu sir’s attention to detail makes him the sort of amazing director. That’s why each body in his movies seems stunning… nearly like a portray. He pushes you until he receives the shot he wants. So as a debut actor, if you have a director like that, you know he’ll make certain the fine from you.”Her adventure has been a unique one. She turned into first rejected on the Miss India competition. She applied again in 2010 and this time she completed 2d runner-up inside the Miss Universe India opposition. “I don’t understand if it came about via coincidence or layout however I became a whole tomboy in college. I wore shoes, I had short hair and I become no longer a humans’s person. I desired to trade that about myself after I became 15,” she confides. “When I went to college (MMK College, Bandra), I participated in all college capabilities and fairs to conquer my shyness. I didn’t
recognise another way to change my character.

I don’t forget once I had to dance on Madhuri Dixit’s Aaja Nachle range I noticed a few 15,000 people inside the audience and I froze on stage. But from then on my self belief simply got higher,” she shares. And then she were given an invite for the Miss India festival and her life changed all the time. The Miss India enjoy spread out new horizons for her. For someone who hails from a South Indian family that places a top rate on schooling, this changed into an entire new international for her. She smiles, “My elder brother’s a physician. My dad is a criminal lawyer. My mother has studied Law and also has an MBA degree. I come from a non-movie background.”

She keeps, “I changed into never the kind of woman, who dabbled with her mother’s make-up. At Miss India, different contestants have been prim and proper, whilst I became being tutored to stroll in heels. But I learnt so much from the competition, I owe a lot to the Times Group. It become right here that I were given gives to walk the ramp, which subsequently led me to films.” Pooja then went down South and debuted with the Tamil movie Mugamoodi (2012). She observed it up with the Telugu hits Oka Laila Kosam and Mukunda (2014). When quizzed about her South rendezvous she retorts, “Everyone does that. You should ask why Deepika did it? Why Katrina Kaif and Priyanka Chopra did it? Generally, you are making a mark in South films after which make the transition to Hindi cinema.” Initially, Pooja wasn’t too certain about her capacity as an actor. But her mom instilled religion in her. She well-knownshows, “Mom said that I must revel in it firsthand to clearly discover if I’m reduce out for it or not. That piece of advice made ideal sense. That’s once I went in advance and gave it my fine shot.”

Working in the South was a fantastic mastering enjoy for the younger actress. She had the opportunity of running with such directors like Mysskin, Vijay Kumar Konda and Srikanth Addala. Her high factor got here whilst she was nominated inside the Best Actress class for her debut film Mugamoodi on the Filmfare Awards. She smiles, “It became a precise confidence booster. Whether you win it or now not, at the stop of the day it changed into your debut film and your call featured along with the tremendous names in the South.” Right now, her attention has shifted to Hindi films. She isn’t doing South Indian films nor is she doing any film with South superstar Allu Arjun. Her destiny plans? She grins, “I want to do a pleasing fun movie. I want to put on jeans to the set. I’ve been sporting the Mohenjo Daro costumes, which take 25 minutes to get into. But of course, I loved carrying them. Most actresses die without doing a duration film. This is my first movie and I got the risk to seem in a periodic drama.” Yes, it’s a momentous pass.