Wedding Wows

Shot in Anandpur Sahib,Punjab and Shimla,the film,says Samrat,is the superstar of his little hamlet. “He is a rockstar,videographer and photographer,for whom people change their wedding dates. He is quite the charmer and a cool dude,” says Samrat. It’s only when life takes a turn and Bittoo’s shown the mirror,that things change. There is,of course,a love story in all of this,with Amita Pathak as the female lead. One film old,(she debuted in Haal-e-Dil with Adhyayan Suman) Pathak’s father,Kumar Mangat produced films like Aakrosh,Omkara and Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji among others. “Having him around helps,but I got into acting for the love of it,” says Pathak,who plays a feisty Punjaban in the film. Also set to make her debut in a Punjabi film,Taur Mitran Di,Pathak feels that if one is not the protagonist or the leading lady,one will never get noticed. As for Samrat,acting is the ultimate expression of the self,and once he is in front of the camera,he says he feels like a “gladiator” who has to “perform and entertain”. There were roles that were offered to Samrat — ensemble cast,second lead,but he declined. “I want to be the protagonist,and this film has signed me on as the hero in the title role. I want to fly high,and not be in the middle rungs of Bollywood,” he says.

Sharing screen space is one thing,hogging the limelight is another. “Cinema was a more forgiving place ten years back. Actors were given second chances. Now,one has to do the best and deliver the best,” reasons Samrat.

Produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Wide Frame Pictures along with Kumar Mangat and Abhishek Pathak,the film’s lead pair also gate-crashed a real wedding in Shimla recently. “We were shooting in the vicinity and the sound of band-bajaa was clashing with our sound system,so we stepped in,got the music stopped on the pretext that Amita and I were reality show hosts and interviewed everyone,” says Samrat.