Itâs been a busy 2024 already for Bollywood star Kriti Sanon with back-to-back box office hits and her first film as producer due in the fall.
As revealed by Variety, Sanon and fellow A-list actor Kajol headline Netflixâs mystery thriller original film âDo Patti.â The film marks the producing debut of Sanon and writer Kanika Dhillon. One of Sanonâs most acclaimed acting roles is surrogacy comedy-drama âMimiâ (2021). Some of her thoughts and inputs that she discussed with director Laxman Utekar were incorporated into the film.
âI really enjoyed the whole process of how that film was made. And I felt that I want to eventually also get involved in certain films that I feel passionate about, beyond just being an actor, [to] creatively be there in the whole filmmaking process,â Sanon told Variety. âAnd also, hopefully, in the future, [to] be able to support and tell a lot of stories that come from my heart, that I feel connected to personally. And I was feeling like it was the right time for me to find something.â
âI had been looking for something meaty, something that had heart in it, that said something, that was challenging for me as an actor as well. I was really going through a lot of content, and I wasnât finding something that deep. Sometimes when you donât find an opportunity, you have to create it,â Sanon added.
Sanon then met Dhillon, whose writing credits include Anurag Kashyapâs Toronto selection âHusband Materialâ (2018), Vinil Mathewâs Netflix original film âHaseen Dillrubaâ (2021) and Rajkumar Hiraniâs Shah Rukh Khan starrer âDunkiâ (2023), whose work she rates highly. Dhillon took an idea of Sanonâs and blended it with one of her own. âWhen I heard it, I got goosebumps,â Sanon said. âItâs been a great journey. Itâs been a lot of learning. But itâs been more than anything, creatively very satisfying to see how an idea, a germ, turns into a story and how that story then finally comes alive with actors and a directorâs vision.â
Directed by debutant Shashanka Chaturvedi, âDo Pattiâ is now in post and due to stream in the fall.
After both training as an engineer and a stint modelling, Sanon debuted as an actor in 2014 with â1: Nenokkadine,â an action film, followed by another film in the genre, âHeropanti,â the same year. Subsequent career highlights include romantic comedies âBareilly Ki Barfiâ (2017), âLuka Chuppiâ (2019), ensemble comedy âHousefull 4â (2019) and creature feature âBhediyaâ (2022). She won a best actress award at Indiaâs National Film Awards for âMimi.â
Sanonâs first release of 2024 was sci-fi rom-com âTeri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya,â where she plays SIFRA (Super Intelligent Female Robot Automation), with whom robotics engineer Aryan (Shahid Kapoor) falls in love. SIFRA eventually develops sentient feelings.
âWhat was challenging was that there was no reference point to it. We have seen a lot of robot films before, even in India, but theyâve been very, very robotic. Here, it was almost a humanoid, it was a robot who a robotics engineer doesnât get to know is a robot until a certain point. So, [SIFRA] has to feel that real. And that close to being a human, but then there has to be something still off about her,â Sanon said.
The actor says that she had to figure out how to make the character real, without being generically robotic or talking and moving in a robotic manner. She made her movements smooth rather than jerky and her responses quicker and more confident.
âIt can get really suffocating because as actors, you like flowing, you like improvising. You have an actor as brilliant as Shahid Kapoor in front of you, who ends up doing an improv and you want to just react to him like a human being would, but you are a robot. So, you have to still be very timely and very correct. And I tried to sometimes time my blinks,â Sanon said. The actor is pleased with the response to the filmâs finale where SIFRA malfunctions and she could go all out without going over the top.
âTeri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiyaâ is one of the biggest Indian hits of 2014 as is âCrew,â which follows three flight attendants with a failing airline who get involved in gold smuggling to a fictitious Middle Eastern country in an operation thatâll save them and their unpaid colleagues financially. Sanon stars alongside Bollywood A-listers Tabu and Kareena Kapoor Khan. âJust to be there in the same space as these two powerful women who have been reinventing themselves and are so relevant, even after having done so many films, that was a big high for me,â Sanon said.
âIt had a very well-etched script with well-written characters and these three women having their own backstories, getting their own moments to shine and belonging to three different generations coming together in this mad comedy heist, which hasnât happened before,â Sanon added.
A sequel to âBhediyaâ is in the works, as is one for âCrew.â Sanon is currently evaluating scripts to decide her next project. âIâm happy and satisfied, but yet still a little restless to explore how I can push the envelope a little more. Iâm not in a hurry to sign something, because I really want to do something only when I love, love, love it. So, I am looking for something that challenges me and makes me do something different from what Iâve already done,â Sanon said.