Home » News » Bloody Daddy’s Aparna Nayr: ‘When Shahid Kapoor is in a scene, he really is present’ | Exclusive
Bloody Daddy’s Aparna Nayr: ‘When Shahid Kapoor is in a scene, he really is present’ | Exclusive
The Ali Abbas Zafar-directed actioner is streaming on JioCinema now
Jun 14, 2023
Aparna Nayr plays a bride in the Shahid Kapoor-starrer film Bloody Daddy
In her first ever Hindi film, actress-model Aparna Nayr was seen sharing screen space with Shahid Kapoor. Director Ali Abbas Zafar’s much talked-about action thriller film Bloody Daddy is currently streaming on JioCinema. Aparna - who has recently also appeared in Yo Yo Honey Singh and Hommie Dilliwala’s single Kanna Vich Waaliyan - played Simran, a Punjabi bride, in Bloody Daddy.
In an exclusive chat with OTTplay the Dubai-based actress spoke about her experience of working with Shahid and Ali Abbas, her love action thrillers, a bit about her future projects and more. Excerpts:
Q. Tell us about your experience of being part of Bloody daddy…
A. Bloody Daddy is not just my first Hindi film, but also the first Indian film that I’ve been a part of. It was an exciting experience. I’m a fan of action movies myself, so I was excited to be a part of an action film for my first Indian movie.
Q. You have made your debut with an actor like Shahid Kapoor and a director like Ali Abbas Zafar. Tell us about it...
A. Well, personally, I love watching Shahid Kapoor in romantic movies. I mean, Jab We Met [Imtiaz Ali’s 2007 romantic comedy film, also starring Kareena Kapoor Khan], being one of the best films in his career. But I think he does action or gritty, dark genres also really well. Kaminey: The Scoundrels [Vishal Bhardwaj’s 2009 action film, also starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas] was amazing. Haider [the Vishal Bhardwaj-directed crime thriller film, also starring Tabu, Kay Kay Menon, Shraddha Kapoor and Irrfan Khan] was also amazing, while Kabir Singh [Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s 2019 romantic drama film, also starring Kiara Advani] comes somewhere in the middle. It’s dark, but it’s also romance. So, he’s very versatile as an actor. And I was interested to see how he would kind of pull together a role like this [NCB officer Sumair Azad in Bloody Daddy]. Even being on set with him, watching him execute the action was incredible. And then, it was even better when I got to watch the movie and see it all come together, it was amazing.
Also read: Bloody Daddy review: The Shahid Kapoor actioner is a hit-and-miss
Ali Abbas Zafar, on the other hand, is known for his ability to make action look very cool and sexy, while the director is also known for his music in his movies. So, those were the two aspects that I was very excited about to see how he would kind of put it together. And we’ve never seen Ali Abbas and Shahid work in a film before this. It has a bit of both of their essences.
Q. Anything anecdotal from the set or any special learning that you would like to share?
A. With Ali sir, I would say that I was taken aback by how hands-on he is with his actors. Whether it’s the lead characters or if it’s someone in the crowd. You would imagine a director of that calibre would usually have his ADs do a lot of the work or communicate with his actors for him. But if he needed to tell you something, he would just come to you and say it to you, which I was kind of taken aback by. He’ll tell you exactly what he wants. He knows what he wants, he’s very clear about it, and he’ll communicate and answer your questions one-on-one. Whenever you ask him something, he’s got an answer for you. Which is so encouraging as an actor to have a director like that, who keeps the door of communication open. So, I feel blessed to have had that opportunity to be directed by him in my first Indian film venture.
Shahid again is someone who is very experienced. You can see it when he’s on set that he knows what he’s doing. And he’s very nuanced. When he’s in a scene, he really is present. He experiments and tries different ways of doing something, which is refreshing to see.
Also read: Exclusive! Shahid Kapoor: Web series let you explore your character's graph
So as an actor, you’re just sitting there, like absorbing it. You’re watching him try something different every time. It’s inspiring to see. And he’ll also tell you about your actions or your dialogues. It’s like a collaboration with him. For a second, you forget that he’s such an established star. You just feel like it’s a person that you’re sharing the screen with. That’s how he makes you feel. He just makes you feel comfortable, and lets you kind of dance with him in the scene. Figuratively, of course.
Q. Tell us a little about your character. How was it different from facing the camera while walking on the ramp or in acting in a music video?
A. Well, I’m playing a bride in the film. The whole movie is pretty much all of the occurrences that happen over one night in a hotel. So, I happen to be getting married. My wedding is at the same hotel. So, it kind of becomes the backdrop to a lot of the events occurring in the film.
In terms of actual set experience, it’s a much larger set. It was my first experience with a film set. So, just the scale at which things operate, the number of people on set, I mean, just the magnitude was something that was much larger. So, that was different, of course. The acting experience or from the perspective of my performance, I wouldn’t say it was too much different, because I’m used to doing that aspect of it. I think this was new for me, because we shot this a year and a half ago. It was my first ever Indian music video that I shot with Badshah. That, I was not used to doing. And it was a little overwhelming. But yeah, I mean, you hit the ground running, and with every job, there is something new for you to learn. No two jobs are ever the same. And yeah, one more new experience. One more learning experience, basically.
Q. What’s your take on OTT as a medium, particularly in terms of opportunities for young actors?
A. I think it’s amazing, with the number of OTT platforms that we have today. I mean, primarily as an audience member, I’m a consumer of all the different shows and movies, not just in India, that get released around the world. So that’s from an audience perspective.
From an actor’s perspective, it’s incredible because we have opportunities today that maybe people didn’t have 20 years ago. Even something that is considered small budget or doesn’t have any star cast, the show can do really well if the audience takes to it, and it can be watched from anywhere in the world. That kind of really opens a lot of doors for people who want to take a leap of faith, and invest their time and energy into a project that maybe would not have been picked up by the bigger studios or be given too much of a budget to make. You really get the opportunity to experiment across languages, genres and platforms. The more the merrier. I think we’re lucky to be in this time to have this much opportunity.
Q. You mentioned that you like action thrillers as a genre. Any favourites?
A. Yes, I am a huge fan of action as a genre. We have the classics. I love the [Chad Stahelski-directed] John Wick series [starring Keanu Reeves]. Then, there is [Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski’s] The Matrix. I also love Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.
Additionally, I think Thailand has a lot of incredible stuff. Although I don’t understand the language, subtitles are helpful. They are so incredibly advanced with their action sequences. I’m putting it out there into the universe that I want to work in a Thai film one day or maybe with a Thai action team. Some of the stuff that I’ve watched recently, Thai movies specifically, their action is unmatched. It’s a little bloody and a little intense, but that’s kind of what you’re asking for when you look at action movies.
In Hindi, I loved watching Pathaan. I am a diehard Shah Rukh Khan fan. Among the others that I watched recently, I liked Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi and Rani Mukerji’ Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway.
Q. Your future projects…
A. I can kind of skim over the top. I have two projects at the moment. One is a feature film and the other is a web series. They’re both very interesting projects, and they’re both very different from Bloody Daddy and from each other. I’m very excited about these two. One is in the crime genre and one is a straight up romance. So they’re complete opposite projects and complete opposite narrations and styles. We don’t have a date yet, so I can’t really say much about these projects right now.
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