New Delhi: Come October 11 and our very own desi girl Priyanka Chopra Jonas would be back on silver screen along with Farhan Akhtar in Shonali Bose’s The Sky is Pink. A slice-of-life film, The Sky is Pink tells the story of a couple Aditi and Niren over the span of 25 years and how their life changes after their daughter Aisha (played by Zaira Wasim) is diagnosed with Pulmonary fibrosis, a life threatening disease.
Priyanka Chopra during a press interaction said that the entire film is mostly based on the real life story of Niren and Aditi with whom she interacted a lot to research for her character. She also told us the challenges behind portraying her role and a very important message viewers will take home after watching the movie.
Excerpts:
Q: The Sky is Pink is a very interesting title. What was your inspiration behind it?
A: This is a very good question. Because we also juggled with this question as to what should be the title of the movie. Because it is based on a real life family and there is no superhero in it. The characters of this film are leading a very normal life but they come across an extraordinary situation. How they deal with it positively forms the crux of the story.
There is an interesting story behind the title of the film. Since the film is based on real life couple Aditi and Niren, they literally told us every scene. The song where I wear a helmet in Chandni Chowk..that also happened for real. Aditi had to wear helmet aur usko ladke ki tarah chupa kar lekar aate hain. So there is a sequence in the film where Aditi and Ayesha are in London and Ishaan and Niren are in Delhi. Ishaan calls Aditi in the night and tells her–“mummy aaj teacher ne mujhe bahot daanta aur kone mein khada kar diya kyunki painting class mein maine sky ka colour pink banaya tha, aur unhone bole nahi aasmaan ka rang to neela hota hai.” (Mummy, teacher scolded and punished me today for painting the sky pink saying its colour should be blue) Aditi felt very bad about it and told him that you won’t let anyone dictate what you are supposed to do. You can colour your sky the way you want it. We really loved this philosophy of the parents and we decided to keep the title Sky is Pink.
Q: The Sky is Pink tells a sensitive and inspiring story. What is that one thing or learning a viewer can take home after watching the film?
A: We forget in our daily life to appreciate people when they are alive. We should appreciate them and I feel this film’s messsage is that families should stay together and support each other, especially parents. I could see my own parents in Aditi and Naren Chaudhary because they believed that their daughter’s life might not be big but it should definitely be long.
Q: What inspired you to take up the character of Aditi. What is it that touched your heart?
A: Before choosing my character, I choose a story first. The most important thing for me is to see if a film would work commercially or not. I don’t see the length of my role because people don’t watch film for a specific character, but for the film as a whole. Directors are the real stars and films are their medium. We are only vessel to tell their story. The most important thing for me was the story and the way it was written. It was written very beautifully.
The film tells a tragic event but the story has been told with a lot of humour and light-heartedness. Birth and death, there are only two things that can be predicted, the rest cannot be. In The Sky is Pink, the characters have seen both these things, so they do not fear anyone.
As for the character, I was really looking for a challenge after doing Quantico for three years, I had stopped surprising and challenging myself. I wanted a role that was an immersive experience for me, a fim that scared me. This film scared me in every scene. I am not a mother and I don’t t know the emotion of losing a child, because it is not the order of the nature. I was feeling challenged and I needed it as an actor.
Q: Throughout the trailer, you are looking flawlessly beautiful even as a mother of two kids. What was the thought of not aging you as the years went by?
A: Cinema has taught us that when a woman ages she should look dowdy, put on weight, shouldn’t put makeup etc. I told Shonali Bose (director) to incorporte these things but she scolded me saying–mujhe dekho main yoga karti hoon, makeup lagati hun. If you google about real life Aditi Chaudhary, she has this philosophy that ‘when life sucks look like a million bucks’.
It was important for her to change this misconception. When girls age why do they need to look bad or old. Heroes 50s mein jaakar bhi muscle bana rahe hain aur hum ladies makeup bhi nahi laga sakti.
Q: Aditi and Niren have a character arc spanning 25 years. How did you prepare for your character from the young Aditi to an older and wiser one?
A: It was very important for me to derive a lot from Shonali and Aditi since I haven’t experienced motherhood and unless you are a mother you don’t understand what it is like to have a child and lose it. I ate Shonali’s brains a lot by constantly talking to her and asking her a lot of questions. In saat Khoon Maaf, I have aged form 19 to 90, so this is a lot less compared to that. Main hamesha apne aap ko chhod kar apne characters mein dhalna pasand karti hoon. I don’t take elements form my real life because then I will be playing Priyanka not the character. So I really spent a lot of time with Aditi and went to London and spent time with her, asked her some difficult questions.
Also read | The Sky Is Pink: Zaira Wasim skips film’s premiere at TIFF