Kriti Sanon Is In  Lucknow Gorging on Kababs & Jalebis

This Diwali Kriti Sanon won’t be home in Delhi with her family. She has been shooting continuously for the past weeks for Ashwini Iyer Tiwary’s Bareilly Ki Barfi in….no not inBareilly. But close.

“We’re in Lucknow. But we’re going to shoot in Bareilly as well,” says Kriti who giggles when asked if she plays the title role  in Bareilly Ki Barfi. “That you will have to see and find out.The title does have a significance to my character, and that’s all I can say right now. What I can share with you is that we’re gorging here in Lucknow on jalebisand kababs.”

For once Kriti doesn’t have to worry about her weight. “The film requires me to look a certain way.And I am being encouraged to stuff myself with forbidden food. It can’t get any better for me.”

She’s having the time of her life shooting in Lucknow. “I’ve never been to Lucknow before. And we’re shooting in the heart of the city,in the mohallas, gullis and bylanes  where the middleclass lives. It’s all a new experience for me, and  I love it. Not that I haven’t played a small town girl before. I did in my very first Hindi film Hero-panti. But that girl was educated in a cosmopolitan environment, so she was not a small-towner in her outlook.”

For Bareilly Ki Barfi Kriti met a  lot of local people in the heart of  Uttar Pradesh studied their accent  clothes and mannerisms. “But I’ve kept the accent  to a minimum. You will find the older generation speaking Hindi with a particular accent.The younger generation speaks a more pan-India Hindi.”

Kriti is all praise for her director and her co-actors. “Ashwini Iyer Tiwari is my first female director. But that’s really not a relevant detail. I see no difference in the working style of Ashwini and my other directors.I mean Rohit Shetty who directed me in Dilwaleis as passionate about his work as Ashwini.What I always enjoy is the opportunity I get to work with the most amazing talent we have. My co-stars are Ayushmann Khurrana,Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi. There is so much to learn from them.I never attended acting school. I never thought I’d be an actor. Now that I am one I am enjoying myself to the fullest. I am learning on the job.”

It is for this reason she looks back with possessive pride at the experience of working in Rohit Shetty’s Dilwale. “It gave me  a chance to work with talent like Shah Rukh Sir,Kajol Ma’am, Rohit Shetty , Sanjay Mishra, Johnny Lever..I learnt so much by simply being around them.”

When told that Dilwale was a disappointment in terms of her role and the film’sboxoffice performance, Kriti protests, “The film made substantial money. As for my role, I was  a part of an ensemble cast, unlike my first Hindi film Hero-panti where I was the solo heroine.”