Mahie Gill's comfortable giving bold shots

Mahie Gill not comfortable giving bold shots Jaspreet Mahie Gill may have become one of the boldest actresses of our times with her latest, " Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster" but the actress says that doesn't mean she is comfortable giving bold shots. 

"I do feel uncomfortable shooting for bold scenes for a film. But then we are modern day actresses and we must abide by what the script demands," she says. Not that Mahie had chosen such roles consciously in the industry, but " Dev D" set her mark as a bold actress and Mahie simply followed the path.

"It was after the response I received for "Dev D" that I realised doing bold scenes isn't such a bad thing after all," she laughs. However, Mahie says such roles are also a reflection of the modern day women and their changing roles, temperaments and priorities. "I believe in doing realistic cinema. Hence, if women in real life are becoming aggressive about their desires and are more comfortable expressing their sexualities, I don't have a problem essaying such real life roles," she adds.

Scene with Mahie is not pornographic: Randeep Hooda

Actors Mahie Gill and Randeep Hooda, who gave some up, close and personal shots including a kiss for 'Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster', feel there's no big deal about intimate scenes. 

"People were talking about it (the kiss) earlier. But after watching the film, nobody talked about it, which is a good thing. My family saw the film but they didn't even mention it or ask me about it," Mahie said here.

Randeep, who earlier shot steamy scenes for his long delayed film 'Rang Rasiya', too justified the scenes. 

"It is a part of the film... It is not pornographic. It is actually a very emotional scene in which two lovers indulge in physical intimacy which is very natural. So when you see the film, you won't find it sleazy, you will feel the emotions," he said. 

The movie, which released Sep 30, is directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia and features Jimmy Shergill. It talks about betrayal, and is said to have been inspired by the principal characters of Guru Dutt's 1962 classic "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam".

Sequel of Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster's starts soon

After cashing in on the success of Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster for the past week, since its release on September 30, the film's makers have already chalked out plans for the sequel. And we hear that the sequel will go on floors on Thursday, at Kino Cottage in Andheri.

A source informed Mumbai Mirror that the film will feature the original film's cast, which includes Randeep Hooda, Mahie Gill and Jimmy Sheirgill.

When contacted, producer Sunil Bohra said, "We never expected this kind of appreciation for Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster. We've decided to launch a sequel right away. Why wait? At the moment, the excitement is fresh for both the crew and the audience."

When asked how the script for the sequel has already been finalised, Bohra explained, "Director Tigmanshu Dhulia had an idea for the sequel before the release of Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster. He just needed to develop that idea. And now, we have the sequel."

--Subhash K Jha

Steamy scenes of Randeep, Mahie leaked

The makers of 'Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster' were in a for a shock Mahie Gill after learning that some intimate scenes of Randeep Hooda and Mahie Gill have been leaked online -- a week before its release.

'The video was from the shoot. Someone might have shot the sequence in his or her mobile and decided to play mischief. The production team thankfully got to know about it and the video has been blocked now,' said a source.

The film is directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia.

Slated for release Sep 30, the film is set in a small town. It is about a beautiful woman, her husband and an ambitious gangster. The film also stars Jimmy Shergeill.

IANS

Mahie Gill got drunk...

Actress Mahie Gill, who plays an alcoholic in " Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster", gulped a few pints of vodka to get into her character, but she got so high she couldn't get down to shoot. 

"One day Mahie came on the set and said, 'I am going to do scenes very nicely.' We had to shoot a song where there was a dance sequence along with a lot of drama," director Tigmanshu Dhulia told IANS. "She asked whether she can have the vodka and I said have it. By the time lights were set, she drank one. But the camera setting was taking time, so she drank more," said the director, adding that after a few drinks "she couldn't even perform simple steps and somehow I wrapped up the shooting".

"Later, she came to know that I am angry with her. She felt so bad that she went back from Gujarat, where we were shooting, to Mumbai. She had to be convinced into believing that everything is fine," said Dhulia. Releasing Sep 30, the film is set in a small town and the story is packed with intrigue, betrayal and ambition between a beautiful begum, her nawab husband and an ambitious gangster. Apart from Mahie, the film has Jimmy Shergill and Randeep Hooda in prominent roles.

Movie Review : Not A Love Story

Cast: Mahie Gill, Deepak Dobriyal, Ajay Gehi, Urmila Matondkar, Zakir Hussain Music: Sandeep Chowta Director: Ram Gopal Varma Producer: Sunil Bohra, Shailesh R Singh Writer: Rohit Banawlikar

A wannabe actress (Mahie Gill) lives alone in Mumbai. No big deal that. Life is a struggle for her. No big deal again. She believes that stardom is only one role away. No big deal either. When the girl eventually lands an assignment that promises to change her life, disaster strikes. This is a real big deal and Ram Gopal Varma, a director who has been off the boil for quite a while now, makes a fair fist of bringing the grim fate of an urban babe in the woods to the screen.

The protagonist of Not A Love a Story is not a protagonist at all. She is like the solitary gasping fish in the glass bowl that the restless camera catches each time to door to the girl’s pad opens. Her fate isn’t in her own hands.

The fishbowl may not be a terribly original visual metaphor for the sense of loneliness that assails her, but it isn’t entirely out of place in Not a Love Story.

The aspiring star is a girl constantly under watch: her possessive boyfriend (Deepak Dobriyal) keeps track of every move she makes, calling her virtually every hour of the day. It is clear that the “fishbowl” of her life is about to crack. When it does, there’s blood on her hands and dead man in on living room floor.

A dark, disturbing reconstruction of a senseless crime of passion that shook the nation three years ago, Not A Love Story sees director Ram Gopal Verma hitting the right buttons for a change.

Obsession, passion, murder, crime, guilt, punishment – these are the key elements that constitute the crux of Not A Love Story. Varma cloaks his narrative in a grimy, grainy shell as a means to capturing the tale’s claustrophobic core.

While the film does underscore the sheer pointlessness of an act of violence that snuffs out a life and sets off a catastrophic chain of events, it does not pass any moral judgment. It simply watches askance as the couple sink deeper and deeper into a moral quagmire of their own making.

The film kicks off with the customary disclaimer disavowing any resemblance to a real-life incident, but this really doesn’t take anything away from the impact of what unfolds in the course of the first few reels.

Not A Love Story has an edgy, frisky feel that lends the narrative a tangible veneer of realism except when the background score (Sandeep Chowta) tends to go off-kilter in a desperate bid to make its presence felt.

The crucial scene of violence eschews graphic excess. The act of the murdered man’s body being chopped is played out off-camera, with Varma employing telling reaction shots of the two actors on the screen.

Both Dobriyal and Gill prove able allies in this strategy. They go about their jobs with clinical precision, their eyes and faces conveying a wide range of emotions – shock, dread, hysteria, distress, sorrow, resignation.

Varma, creator of such well-crafted portraits of the Mumbai underworld as Satya, Company and Sarkar, seems to have regained much of his form in Not A Love Story.

He announces his intentions with the opening sequence itself. The young couple, madly in love, is about to be separated because the girl has decided to leave for Mumbai to pursue an acting career. The air is thick with foreboding as the man, anguish writ large on his face, smothers the girl with his manic love.

His love for the girl seems no more neurotic than the girl’s ambition to make it big in showbiz, a fact underlined by the repeated playing of Yai re yai re zor laga ke naache re, the anthem-like Urmila Matondkar chartbuster from RGV’s Bollywood breakout, Rangeela.

Once the couple has disposed of the body of their victim, Ashish Bhatnagar (Ajay Gehi), an executive of a film production company, the film shifts focus to the investigation and the prosecution.

While the first bit is engaging enough, thanks as much to the script as the understated acting of Zakir Hussain as a CID inspector who gets to the bottom of the truth, the second bit degenerates into a farcical battle between loud lawyers desperate to construct a defence for the obviously indefensible.

The lovers are anything but loveable characters. And this tale is a tragedy woven around the ugly face of love. Downbeat? Yes. But it’s engaging and watchable – if for nothing else, for the flashes of the RGV of yore.

Read more at: http://movies.ndtv.com/movie_Review.aspx?id=644&cp

Mahie Gill: ‘Not a Love Story’ was mentally exhausting

‘Bold’ has become Mahie Gill’s second name. Ever since her debut in Bollywood, she has done roles that most actors would shy away from. Her latest act is the onscreen portrayal of Maria Susairaj in Ram Gopal Varma’s Not a Love Story. She gets candid about playing this controversial character…

Mahie Gill is a well-known name in the stratum once called ‘parallel cinema’. She is of the ilk that filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap et al focus on. For the masses, she played Arbaaz Khan’s lover Nirmala in Dabangg. After a few films (Gulaal, Mirchi, Utt Pataang and Aagey Se Right) here and there, the Chandigarh born actor returns to the limelight with another controversial act. But then that’s what filmmakers like about Mahie: she doesn’t limit herself. Remember the daring liplock in her first film, Dev.D?

After a series of calls, finally, just the day before deadline, she calls to do the promised interview. Mahie is at the hospital nursing a sick friend, the reason for the delay in talking to us, but she keeps her word. From our telephonic conversations, she comes across as an easy-going, friendly and chilled-out girl.

So, what was her first reaction when she was offered Not a Love Story (NALS)? “First of all, I have really wanted to work with Ram Gopal Varma for a very long time. I am a big fan of his,” says Mahie in her deep voice accentuated with the slight twang of the north. “The moment I got a call from his office, there were no questions asked. I just wanted to meet him. He told me about this particular film. And I thought it was a very challenging role.”

Challenging it is, but surrounded by controversy. Did she not harbour any apprehensions when saying ‘yes’? The girl with a Masters degree from Punjab University immediately rejects the thought. “I am an actor. I got a good script and it was RGV.” It can be a satisfying experience for an actor, but what about her image in the public eye? Often an actor’s screen persona is what the real off-screen individual becomes for the audience, unless, of course, it is a Salman Khan or an Aamir Khan.

But Mahie is unperturbed by the constant questions regarding her controversial role. In fact, she seems prepared for brickbats. “The kind of work that I am doing, each role is very different from the other. Here was this character that I had never played before. So it was a challenge for me and, at the same time, the film is inspired by Maria’s story and not based on her life,” says Mahie.

However, playing the part was not a cakewalk for her. The Dev.D actor was aware of the troubles of a struggling actor, but “We know of the incident, but nobody in the world would ever know what happened in the flat where there were three people, one of whom died.”

“So here came the director’s interpretation. Ramu sir was very helpful. But otherwise this film was mentally very exhausting and very difficult,” says the young actor. Also, when shooting, Mahie and her cast and crew colleagues would often think about the protagonists in the film – that’s the closest they came to empathising with the real people behind the characters. “While shooting our scenes in the flat (the same building where the real life incident occurred), we would often think about how they (Maria Susairaj and Jerome Mathew) managed to chop the body into pieces, burn it and then put it into packets in such a small place,” she says, matter-of-factly.

Despite the raised eyebrows and hullabaloo surrounding Not A Love Story, Mahie is excited about the release. “My friends and family are very happy because whatever little they have seen in the promos they are finding very interesting.” And what about the kissing and bold scenes she does on screen? “Recently my mom saw the photograph from Sahib Biwi aur Gangster in a newspaper. It’s difficult for her to understand. So she told me, ‘I wish you had done your PhD and become a lecturer instead’,” she laughs. “But she likes it when people appreciate my work and tell her that. It was only this particular incident. Otherwise she is fine (with me being an actor).”