With NH10 working well as a first-time venture, producer Anushka Sharma's beaming. Has the film's success changed her? "I am more confident with my films now and somehow, I have become more responsible towards my work", she says, only to add cheekily, "But I always have been responsible, haven't I?"
Over a cup of coffee, the actress and first-time producer Anushka explains why she always knew NH10 would work and discusses her upcoming production ventures...
As an actor, you have taken multiple risks. NH10 must have been one of them. With its success, are you in a happy space now?
Actually, I never saw NH10 as a risk. You can call it my gut feeling, I always knew that this film is going to work. NH10 is very high on content and in terms of the genre, which is a thriller, I thought that people will enjoy something like that. There was no fear of whether it would work or not. My only fear was that if it does not work, I would still be making such films but it would mean that probably people are not ready to see such films. These are the kind of films that I would like to make in future as well. NH10 has proven that these films do have a wide audience today because the kind of numbers the film did over the first weekend, establishes my faith on my own conviction.
Has NH10's success eased things for you?
It will definitely be much easier when we work on our second project and make our next film. We have got the credibility that we wanted as a production house and people now know that these guys actually know what they are making. Working with people like Navdeep and Sudeep gave me a high and as a matter of fact, we already have a couple of scripts that we are working on with them. In spite of being an A-list actor, my only hope was that once NH10 does well, it would be much easier to put out a film like this again.
Your brother played a big hand at encouraging you to turn a producer..
The production house is totally my brother's brainchild. Even before NH10 happened, we (Anushka and her brother) have been collaborating with Navdeep and Sudeep and I think we make a great team. We are like-minded people and we appreciate the same kind of cinema. My brother's been a huge part of my career. All the films that I have decided to do (or not to), he has been a huge part of the discussion. He voices his feelings better because it's a normal person's awaaz. He is not from the industry and he gives me the best advice always. He is like a brain - he gets what I want and he is very good at developing projects. On the working front, it has been great working with him. It has been awesome how we divided the responsibility between the two of us. With Navdeep and Sudeep, we would definitely like to put up few more projects which are not the usual run-of-the-mill projects. It will be very different and hatke.
Will you be acting in them as well?
Not necessarily. We have one project which is a much smaller film. I would not be acting in it because it does not require me at all. It does not need somebody like me in the film. Then, there's another film where I might be acting in. So it depends. As of now, we have these two projects in mind. Taking corners or taking the easy way out by saying that 'Main hi har film mein act kar leti hoon' is not what we are going to do. Jahaan pe zaroorat hai, wahaan act kar loongi.