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Actor Nargis Fakhri, who is best known for her performance in the hit film Rockstar, spoke about working with director Imtiaz Ali and actor Ranbir Kapoor, neither of whom she knew when she first met them. Nargis moved to India after working as a model for some years.
In an interview with Mashable Middle East, Nargis recalled how she came to be cast in the movie. She said that she did a jewellery campaign which ended up on billboards in India without her knowledge. She was approached by someone from Imtiaz’s team, who was under the assumption that she was based in Mumbai. When she told them that she wasn’t, they insisted that she meet Imtiaz, who was going to travel to the Czech Republic. That’s where Nargis’ mother is from, although Nargis was born and brought up in New York.
She said, “She told me, ‘The director will be in Prague, and he’d still like to meet you.’ I was like, ‘Oh, what the hell, let me go meet this person. If he’s weird I’ll kick him in the b**ls and I’ll run’. I had my New York out. I’m not afraid, I’m ready to fight people. You learn that when you’re six, in the hood.”
She continued, “I go, and this strange man with big curly hair, very nice, good aura… So, obviously, my instinct kicks in to judge the character. Good person, very nice, felt safe, told me the most beautiful story I’ve ever heard in my life. I literally saw the whole movie in my head when he was telling me the story. And he said, ‘If you come to India, we can help teach you the language’. I said ‘I don’t know’, because obviously that’s a huge thing to do, I don’t know anybody, I don’t know what I’ll do there. But after a couple of weeks, they asked again, and I said okay fine, I’ll just go and try. You only live once in life, you have to take a chance.”
Recalling her experience with Ranbir, she said, “Obviously, working with Ranbir was a blessing, in hindsight. But, at the time, I didn’t know who he was. I was like, ‘Who’s this dorky guy?’ But he’s very cool, and it was so much fun to work with so many people. But I had no idea who they were, which is probably great. Because I just enjoyed them for who they are. I wasn’t nervous, because I didn’t know who they were, and when you don’t know, you don’t care.”
Released in 2011, Rockstar also starred Aditi Rao Hydari, Piyush Mishra and Kumud Mishra. The film grossed more than Rs 100 crore globally.
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