Y Sunita Chowdhary
There’s more to Raashi Khanna than being another pretty face and the ones who criticise that she didn’t do many worthy films apart from Oohalu Gusagusalade, Toli Prema and World Famous Lover (WFL), may need a reality check after all. What else can a heroine do when she doesn’t get an author-backed role, other than working in commercial films for visibility and survival? She had given her best to WFL and you’ll notice it isn’t a very easy role to enact. In the film industry to be called a star, or even last this long, one needs a series of hits and nothing speaks like success, but having said that, an artiste can have her share of hits and misses but there is no way she can hang on this long if she isn’t a good actor.
It is also a lot about connections, even though she had entered this industry six years back, she is away from all the PR. It is sad that the filmmakers are not able to see the potential she can bring to the table. She was seen as Bellam Sridevi in Supreme and in her recent hit Prathi Roju Pandage she was Angel Aarna where she got her comic timing right and it is just about time we see if this massive hit translates into a substantial role in another film. Raashi Khanna tells Klapboardpost.com that she wants to do a lot more in mainstream cinema and is open to doing Tamil or Telugu OTT films provided the concept is great. She is truly capable of pushing the bar and here, Raashi shares her five most favourite films and tells us how it impacted her.
Pride and Prejudice
There are so many films that came to my head and how do I choose. I like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It is also one of my favourite books. In those times, marriage was the most important thing for a girl. It is a story of these sisters and it is basically about how she breaks stereotypes. She wants to do something for herself. Elizabeth Bennet is played by Keira Knightley and she does a fabulous job; She is a very strong headed woman and does what she wants to do, and for her only love will lead to marriage and there is no settlement. I’ll marry only if I love someone, otherwise I’ll stay single, I will be cool and I don’t care about what society thinks. She broke stereotypes, very empowering for those times, it left an impact on me. The book is my favourite and so is the BBC version.
Inception
Art is something that leaves you thinking and I am an English honours student. The whole concept of getting into a dream and not knowing the difference between reality and dream and how you put an idea in someone’s brain is fascinating. This is about Leonardo DiCaprio. Once you understand it, it is so beautiful how the mind works and how these writers have created something like this. Towards the end, as they roll a top on the table, you don’t know if it is a dream or reality. That is what life is. I am a spiritual person and I relate to it. You don’t know where you are in your dreams and what reality is when you come back. The way it is conceptualised is brilliant.
Notebook
Because I am a die-hard romantic, I like Notebook. My parents are madly in love with each other and it is a rare thing even today. Nick is the director and when I saw the film, I was very emotional. My friends said such love doesn’t exist like this, it is there only in the movies. I said no, it does. Tomorrow god forbid if a situation comes where the lady forgets everything, and the husband goes to narrate the story, my father will do exactly like that. I have a lot of faith in love and I am positive.
Super Deluxe
Vijay Sethupati in Super Deluxe is unbeatable. The story humanises the role of transgender. When he meets the son and the latter says ‘I don’t care if you are a man or a woman, I want you to be with my mom’, it moves you to tears. I told Vijay he was fantastic in that scene when he was crying. I am a fan of his work, his acting touched me.
Other films I liked:
Another two films I would like to mention is Rang De Basanti and an English film. When I was growing up I saw Rang De Basanti, it is about what the youth does for the country. It affected so many minds in so many ways. There is one film of Al Pacino, called The Scent of a woman. It is not easy to act like a blind person and the actor makes it look effortless.
