The trailer of Janhvi Kapoor’s upcoming thriller Mili was unveiled at a mega event in Mumbai on October 15. Apart from the actress, producer Boney Kapoor, director Mathukutty Xavier, lyricist Javed Akhtar, actors Manoj Pahwa, Satish Kaushik and others were also present. The Free Press Journal gives you a lowdown on the event.
Janhvi is seen as a girl trapped in a massive freezer in the film. She was dressed in a stunning red saree and the media couldn't help but draw parallels to her mom, the late Sridevi. However, her father Boney feels differently. “Everybody has a different mechanism to understand the character, and then to become that character. That was the USP of Sridevi and perhaps Janhvi carries the same DNA. She also gets into the character. She doesn’t play the part but becomes the part thus you have seen the growth in Janhvi with each film,” he explains.
(l-r) Javed Akhtar, Boney Kapoor, Satish Kaushik |
He further adds, “The audience in North India saw Sridevi after she had almost done 200 films in the South. She had reached a particular level of understanding her characters. My baby has only started her journey. Don’t put her in any kind of comparisons with her mother. She had started her journey as a child artiste.”
Boney Kapoor with Janhvi Kapoor |
Mili is the Hindi remake of acclaimed Malayalam film Helen (2019) which has also been helmed by Xavier. However, Janhvi feels comparisons between both films are inevitable. “Honestly, comparisons are okay with me anyway. I don’t look at it in a calculative way. I had seen Helen and was thrilled to be working with someone like Muthukutty sir. He made the film wholeheartedly with such finesse and passion. That was the excitement in it for me,” she avers.
Janhvi Kapoor with director Mathukutty Xavier |
Opening up about why she opted to act in Mili, Janhvi shares, “It was new and challenging so I took it up. I felt that Helen hadn’t reached the North Indian audiences even though it was dubbed in Hindi. The characters in the script are being written by someone else. So I get to perform something that has been interpreted by a different individual. I am indeed getting a fresh version of it. Finally, I have interpreted it in my own way.”
(l-r) Manoj Pahwa, Javed Akhtar, Janhvi Kapoor, Boney Kapoor, Mathukutty Xavier |
Boney explains, “Mother India (1957) was a remake of its own version. Nargis had bagged all the awards. It was a big success then.Infact whenever a single theatre came up they opened it with Mother India. As the owners felt it would definitely run for 28 weeks. Nowhere in the performances of Nargis did you see the similarities with Sardar Akhtar. Who had done the original Aurat (1940). So the freshness and newness depends on the performances of the present actor.”
(l-r) Javed Akhtar, Janhvi Kapoor, Boney Kapoor, Mathukutty Xavier |
Manoj Pahwa and Janhvi Kapoor |
Since the film show’s the actress trapped inside an icy cold storage, we jokingly call her ‘icy baby’ to which she replies, “If you want to call me that, you are free to do so. I love compliments. When the freezer was at its lowest I knew I would give my best performance.”
When asked if she would like to play her mother in a future biopic, Janhvi concluded, “No I wouldn’t. That would be a very long answer. Besides, I am feeling hungry and I don’t want to cry.”
