THE OTHER SIDE OF ILEANA D’CRUZ

There are two versions of Ileana D’Cruz. Place a camera before her and she sizzles; take it away and she’s a free-spirited beach girl. Verve gets to see a bit of both There are some life decisions Ileana D’Cruz has arrived at (some the hard way). 1. “It’s my job to be an actress; not to be an entertainer 24/7. I will perform only for the camera. I can’t make a scene to draw attention to myself; I can’t do that crazy shit.” 2. “I’m a very friendly person, but only if I’m sure that you’re okay with it and I’m not intruding into your space. Otherwise, I will not get in there.” 3. “You could be the best person in the world but there’s always someone who’s going to be disappointed in you. You’re always going to rub someone the wrong way whether you like it or not. You can’t please everyone.” 4. “I like to keep things a little private. You lose a little bit of that mystery and beauty if you keep harping on what’s very personal and precious to you.” I couldn’t say I wasn’t warned. Taking off her make-up post the photo shoot, Ileana sums it all up with the air of one whose mind will not be swerved: “One thing I’ve always told myself, and one thing I’ve always made sure of, is that I won’t change my individuality just to be a part of the film industry.” Right, so it’ll have to be on her terms. But when she talks, she compensates that by not hiding behind words or acting coy; what a relief. She clams up only when it comes to the b-for-boyfriend word, so we’ll get to that last. But like most stars, when Ileana says ‘personal life’, what she means, is more specifically, her love life. The rest is open. Especially her big break in Bollywood, Barfi. Lucky girl, everyone said, to kick off with such a blockbuster of a movie that kept the critics happy and saw her holding her own against Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Hey, it wasn’t luck, it was all thanks to a lot of work and the story wasn’t all that easy, she insists. When she signed Barfi, she says, “So many people told me, ‘What a stupid choice you’ve made. Great that you’re doing a film with Ranbir, but when there’s Priyanka, what are you going to be doing?’ So, I said, we’ve both got very different roles and I think it all comes together very harmoniously, but they couldn’t buy that.” However, she went with her gut feel and, then, “They all had to shut up.” Before that victory came what she calls a ‘breaking point’. “Nobody knows this but I had an emotional breakdown right before Barfi released. The intensity, the pressure, and the promotions — it all got to me. I couldn’t function. I felt, oh god, maybe I’ve made a big mistake.” When she saw the movie a week before its release, she cried, not just because it was so moving, but “out of self-pity; who was going to look at me? Ileana ran away, right out of the country, to stay with a friend — and switched off her phone. What, she missed all the excitement of the super-success of her Bollywood debut? “I was accessing my mail so I knew what was happening,” she clarifies, “but everyone said I was being really stupid, and maybe I was a coward to run away, but I just couldn’t deal with it.” Clearly, Ileana does not quite operate like your typically ambitious Hindi film actress. She doesn’t get into the gossip columns too often, she isn’t seen much at film dos or parties; she doesn’t even seem to take her delicate, sharp-featured, golden-skinned beauty too seriously. Quite amazingly, for an actress sitting in front of a room-wide make-up mirror, she’s not checking out her angles or playing with her hair or even looking much in that direction. “I don’t think I’m beautiful or hot. I don’t even think I’m ladylike, though I’m getting there,” she laughs uproariously. “I think I’m goofy and incredibly clumsy. I’ve fallen twice already on the sets when the cameras weren’t rolling. Sometimes I think I’m a boy trapped in a girl’s body!” Some more full-throated laughter. You won’t see her in too many Page 3 pictures because, when she’s in front of the paparazzi, she says, “A different persona comes over me. I’m not me-me. It feels weird posing like that, but it’s part of the job, so I do it.” She doesn’t mind the dressing up too much because she has stylists to do all the homework for her and pick the right clothes. “But sometimes it’s a pain; all you want to do is wear sweatpants and a big, baggy sweatshirt and go to the movies like that as opposed to wearing high-heeled shoes,” she admits. Still, the job demands it, so Ms Professional buckles down and does it. Even if she doesn’t quite understand fashion (her assessment, not mine) and the pronouncements of the fashion police bewilder her. “They’ll be going, ‘Oh my god, that was gorgeous; it’s such an amazing fashion statement,’ and I’m looking at the girl and thinking, she doesn’t look good, she looked better in the simple outfit she was wearing earlier. Maybe I’m dumb but I don’t get that stuff. I’ve committed lots of fashion sins and hopefully they’ve forgiven me,” she giggles. She doesn’t care much for the party circuit, either. She grew up in Goa; she’s more an outdoorsy beach girl than a party girl. She has never, repeat never, stepped into any of the clubs in Goa. But in Mumbai and for work, she makes some allowances. “I can do the social networking because it’s a professional requirement but I can’t do the whole party thing,” she declares. “I have an issue with people getting drunk around me; I have to get out of that situation. So I stay for an hour when everyone is sober but the minute everyone’s getting drunk, I’m out.” Interesting strategy. So how does she deal with the, well, over-friendly types in the film industry, I ask. I think it’s an over-hyped situation,’ she replies, “this over-friendly, casting couch stuff.” Hang on, I didn’t quite say casting couch, I butt in, but she argues, “Yeah, but it’s all varying degrees of the same thing if we’re talking over-friendliness, isn’t it?” Sure, go on, I say. “It happens if you encourage that kind of behaviour. I make sure people know what their limit is and that they don’t cross that line. I’d rather leave the industry if the norm were to be ‘friendly’. Yes, some people have their fun but it’s mutual. In any case, it happens everywhere. Actually, far worse happens in other industries.” In fact, the people she’s worked in with in the Hindi film industry have been far from sleazy, she says. Anurag Basu, her Barfi director, is one she’s particularly fond of. “He’s really nice; a big bear brother of a person. He used to tell me, ‘You work so hard…chill, man, go get a life, get a couple of boyfriends!’” Co-star Ranbir Kapoor is another favourite. “I’d read so much about how he was a so-called Casanova, but it’s utter rubbish. He’s an incredibly decent guy and a very intense person. We had some very interesting conversations. He can be goofy too; there were a lot of pranks on sets when he was around.” Saif Ali Khan, her Happy Ending co-star, is equally, if differently, ‘goofy’ (a word she uses often). To begin with, she decided to give him his space and kept her distance. “But he thought I was being incredibly formal with him and one day, he came up to me and said, (imitating him) ‘Why can’t we just be friends?’ He’s very generous as a person and wants you to have fun on the sets. Half the time he would go, ‘Enough of working, let’s all go out.’ He’s very childlike; in some ways he’s like a child in a man’s body.” Happy Ending had some happy times for her, even if it bombed at the b-o. It even had a small cameo by Andrew Kneebone, the Australian boyfriend-she-won’t talk-about-to-the-press. She has no problems posting pictures of him on Instagram with gushy captions, she features upfront on his webpage (he’s a photographer); they attend events together. But her lips are zipped when a recorder or press camera is rolling. There’s been much speculation that the big rock she sports is an engagement ring, but say so, and first, she asks in a faux flat tone, “What about my ring?” Then she says, laughing now, but not giving in, “Everyone said it’s a beautiful ring and I agree.” I let it go. Why would anyone want to push a young, happening actress into marriage or an engagement or talking about either, if she doesn’t want to? Not talking about a boyfriend is one unwritten Bollywood rule Ileana is following; let’s leave her to it.

Murtaza Rangwala

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