Mubarakan actor Ileana D’Cruz explains how despite being a Goan girl, she transformed into a Punjabi character

Ileana, who was last seen in Rustom opposite Akshay Kumar last year, shared her experience of working with Anil Kapoor in Mubarakan. “He was the youngest one on the set. It was his first film! He is the most positive person I’ve come across. He is genuinely very inspirational in a way he doesn’t realise it. He comes on the set everyday with an agenda to learn something new, do something new, impress his director. And some way, very purely, he wants to be the best.”

So how did Ileana, who hails from Goa, manage to get into the skin of a Punjabi girl? “I always wanted to play a Punjabi girl because I always found them very colourful in a way. There’s always a spark to all the Punjabi girls I’ve seen onscreen. And honestly, Sweety is very much like that. I was honestly surprised that Anees ji thought of me to play Sweety. I’m a Goan girl. I come from Goa and there’s definitely no influence of Punjabiness in me so I don’t know how I managed to play it. Hopefully I’ve done a good job,” the actor said.

Ileana also cleared the air about her recent interview where she spoke about a breakdown in London during the shooting of Mubarakan. While many thought the incident was something that happened during the film’s shooting, Ileana refuted all reports. “It was nothing to do with Mubarakan. It was just a bad day in general. I basically said that it was a certain expectations of me, or in general of an actor, which I wasn’t comfortable with, and I don’t think I could ever resort to those sort of tactics to get a film. So that was something that got me down. And unfortunately it happened when I was filming for Mubarakan,” she said.

Check out some pictures of Ileana D’Cruz and the cast of Mubarakan from their Delhi promotions.

(Photo: APH IMAGES)

(Photo: APH IMAGES)

(Photo: APH IMAGES)

(Photo: APH IMAGES)

Ileana will next be seen in a period drama Baadshaho which also stars Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi and Esha Gupta. “They are very different characters, very different genres all together and very different kids of directors also. As an actor you can get disoriented and confused. I needed my director to tell me my character well and make sure I was on the right path and I thankfully had that,” Ileana added.