Mumbai, September 07: Entertainment Editor Rajeev Masand caught up with Rani Mukherjee and quizzed her about everything under the sun, including her about-to-be-released film Dil Bole Hadippa and the much-talked-about ‘impending marriage’. Rajeev Masand also quizzed the actress about her pairing up with Shahid in Dil Bole Hadippa. Here is the complete interview:
Rajeev Masand: Rani, it has been almost a year since we last saw you on screen and I know there has been much speculation in the media about an impending marriage. But your fans really want to know. What have been up to?
Rani Mukherjee: First of all, let me clarify. There is no marriage on the cards. Not at all, no engagement and no marriage. I think they have been trying to marry me off since the last three years and they are just not able to get a fix on the date. But just to clear the air, there is no marriage and there is none happening in the future also. Yes, when I do intend to get married, I shall definitely let you know because you are a friend of mine and of course to the rest of the people like my audience, my fans who deserve to know that I am getting married. I do not think I am that kind of a person or an actress who will hide an important thing like marriage. So, I guess they are hurting my sensibilities by contemplating a marriage of mine and not giving me the respect enough for me to tell the media or tell the fans. They are trying to make an actress out of me who is trying to hide her marriage, which is definitely not the case.
Rajeev Masand: You know, if you were not an actress, this would probably be the time you would have been married. Don’t your parents pester you (about getting married)?
Rani Mukherjee: Not at all. I think my parents are only too happy (the way things are). I guess, they only say that when you do decide to get married, please let us know because we have to persuade the guy to live with us. That is what they keep telling me, but no, my parents are just too sweet. They give me the independence to do what I feel like doing. I think that has been the case with my brother too. He had a love marriage, eight years back. He had wanted to run away (elope) with my sister-in-law. But I somehow convinced my parents that it is better to let him marry as he pleases rather than having him running away from home. They are very sweet. My brother and sister-in-law have a great marriage and also have two kids now. I am very happy looking after them, my two babies, Mayesha and Vihaan. That’s my life.
Rajeev Masand: So do you baby-sit too?
Rani Mukherjee: Yes. So for the last one year, I have either been working on Dil Bole Hadippa or baby-sitting my niece. So I guess that has been my life. I guess the most important part of my life is that I have been working really hard on myself. That involved a lot of physical training and all because for the past year and a half, I have been working on Dil Bole Hadippa. For the first six months before the shooting started, I had to go through this extensive training on cricket because I play cricket in Dil Bole Hadippa. So I was getting professional training from this coach who is a former cricket player. She taught me the ABCD of cricket, right from holding the bat correctly to kind of stance, hitting the shots, walking with the pads…the works. After that got over, I wanted to lose weight because I wanted to tone my body to look like an athlete. In the process I started enjoying the weight loss and the toning bit.
–Agencies