EXCLUSIVE! Diana Penty: Post Cocktail, people just assumed that I was this quiet, shy stereotypical girl

Diana Penty kick-started her Bollywood career in 2012 with Homi Adjania's glamourous rom-com Cocktail, which also starred Deepika Padukone and Saif Ali Khan. She took a four-year-long break right after that and returned to the silver screen only in 2016 with Happy Bhag Jayegi. From there to now playing a woman in uniform in Parmanu : The story of Pokhran, the actress has come a long way. 

Read DNA's exclusive interview with Diana as she talks about her journey in Bollywood, her passion for war films, and why she doesn't mind doing two-actress films - 

Q. You made your Bollywood debut with a glamorous film like 'Cocktail'. How would you describe your journey from there to now playing an army person?
Well, I have always tried, in whatever way I can, to play different characters and become part of different genres of films. Because, I feel it excites and challenges me. You are right, 'Cocktail' was an out and out commercial film and like you said, it was a very good-looking film. 

After that, I moved on to play Happy for my second film - 'Happy Bhaag Jayegi'. She was completely opposite from Mira in Cocktail'. She was a loud mouth, who didn't think before speaking.

 It was extremely challenging for me as I am not like that in real life. So, it took a while for me to get used to speaking so loudly, for example. I had to do workshops to pick up a little Punjabi-ness and just generally being able to get to the mind set of a character, which I don't relate to at all. 

Story wise, if you ask me, 'Happy Bhaag Jayegi' was way more commercial than Cocktail. It was more of an heart-land kinda story. For me, it was all very new and different and hence very challenging. 

Post that, there was 'Lucknow Central'. And character wise, Gayatri was in between Mira and Happy. She was more measured, confident and she knew what she wanted to do. 

And finally here I am in Parmanu doing a little bit of action in a genre that I have done before. It's kind of an espionage spy thriller, if I can call it that. I'm glad that atleast there is certain amount of self-satisfaction in the sense that I have managed to do what I had set out to do which was to play different kind of characters, explore different genres of films. And, there is so much more to do and I do want to keep it as varied and diversified as possible. 

I don't want to do the same thing over and over again. I don't want to be a type-cast. And I feel post Cocktail, that happened a lot. People just assumed that I was this quiet, shy stereotypical (girl). I was a lot like that in my normal life, at that time. 

But, I feel I have evolved over the years, personally as well. I am way more confident now. If you ask me now, I don't relate to Mira anymore but back then I completely did. So yeah, that's been my journey so far. 

Q. Nimrat Kaur had recently done a military drama titled 'Test Case'. In the initial scenes, she is referred to as a 'Military Barbie' by her fellow male cadets. Does your character also experience similar kind of sexism in the film? 

Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to watch it. I mean I have seen the poster and she is looking stunning. Every time I see that picture of hers on the poster, I am like, 'You Go Girl.' 

But to answer your question, no. Also Parmanu is a thriller, it's actually based on true events. It's about how India became a nuclear power in 1998 . A lot of us don't know the details of what actually happened, we only know that India was declared a nuclear power in 1998 after we successfully conducted the tests and all the sanctions that followed. We don't really know how we went about becoming a nuclear power. 

There were a lot of facts that I got to discover only after I started working on this film because Abhishek Sharma, who is the director of Parmanu, has done immense research on the topic. He is like a walking-talking encyclopedia of India's nuclear tests. So, if you ask him any question from what we did from '74, to '95 to '98, he has all the answers. 

My research for the film was actually through him. The film, as much as possible, is based on facts. And he has stuck to that because he didn't want to dramatize the event just for the heck of it. He wanted to keep it as real, honest and as informative as possible. And at the same time while we are managing to keep is as real as possible, it is extremely entertaining because it's a thriller. It's like you are sitting at the edge of your seat not sure whether, 'it's going to happen, not going to happen.' 

So it's that genre. It is not a frivolous fiction. So hence to answer your question, no there wasn't any of that in the film because this was a group of people on a mission and it was their collective efforts that made us a nuclear power at the end of the day. 

So yeah, there was no in-equality if that's what you're saying. Everybody was equally respected in the story and in real life as well. 

Q. Females have always had very limited roles in war films like that of doctors, spies or technicians. What would you like to say about that? 

You mean they don't take on the actual heavy-duty combat roles. Is that true, though? I am sure there must have been two or three films. No? 

Q. Not in Bollywood, atleast. Do you think your role in Parmanu would revolutionize the genre for females? 

I hope so. I think there is so much scope and I would love to be a part of an out and out combat drama. I would love it! It's the genre that I personally love watching. I had a little bit of action in this film but I'd love to explore that even more. I had a little kick-boxing scene so I had to get my body used to it as I hadn't done martial arts before. 

I had a trainer who helped me get the body language right. I would love to do an action flick or a combat role. This is the genre I am really passionate about. When it comes to reading books or even watching films, I am all about wars or espionage thrillers. These are the topics that I look for when I go book shopping. I never read fiction. For some reason, I have never been into fiction, atleast in my adult life. When I was a kid, 'Nancy Drew' and 'Hardy Boys' were fun.  I mostly read books based on true events, so it's usually a war story or accounts of raw agents. 

Q. So have you read Harinder Sikka's 'Calling Sehmat'? 

I have not! I wanted to read it but I ended up watching the film (Raazi) first. I am now going to be reading 'Bard of Blood', which I believe is going to be made into a film.

Q. Bollywood is undergoing a massive transformation. We are going back to believing that content is the real king. But, do you still feel that we lag behind in the department of scripts? Films like Raazi and Parmanu just form 10% of the total number of films Bollywood churns out in a year.

The fact that it's finally even happening, is great news. There will always be an audience for formula films. We live in a country where people love to be entertained, they go to the movies because they want to escape from their daily lives and they just want to have fun and live in a fantasy world (for those three hours). And there is nothing wrong with that. Infact at some level, you have to respect that and give them what they want because at the end of the day you are making a film for the audience. Yeah, you are making it for your self as well, for your personal satisfaction and as an actor you want to be part of films so yes that element exists as well but then at the end of the day it's the audience who decides whether your film does well or not and if you are investing in a film you want it to do well. 

So you have to give them what they want yes ofcourse but, I can also sense in the last few years the audience as well is changing. Their mind sets are changing. People now are looking for better content. I feel like you can't give them mediocre anymore, doesn't work. They are just more intelligent that that. Today they can sit at home and watch Netflix. They have access to so much content from all over the world.

So, I feel that's definitely changing and that's a great sign. It means that the films that are not typically 'masala' also have a place and that's great. And that's great. It gives us actors so much more to play with. You get to do the 'masala' stuff as well and you get to do slightly more substantial stuff as well.

Q. You will be next seen in Happy Phir Bhaag Jayegi? What do you have in store for us this time? 

The film is as crazy, as funny, as sweet and endearing as the first one. if you have seen the first one, it was a ridiculously funny film. We had a great time making it. What I liked most about the film, and full respect to Mudassar (Aziz) for that, was the fact that he kept it a clean family comedy. Usually if you look at the comedies that do well, they are border line adult. But, this was like a full family film and it was still funny. And I am happy that it did well enough for them to even consider making a Part 2. It's going to be a laugh riot. 

Q. This will be the second time when you will be seen in a two-actress film. How has your personal experience been ?

I have always had a great experience on all my films so far with everybody I have worked with. I mean, chics can be really chilled. It's been like that at least for me on the films I have worked in. We have had a great time. Like it's very chilled out, it's fun, everybody being themselves and no hangups. It's normal. 

We had a few scenes together and it was great. We actually had a lot of fun. We had to keep re-taking because I kept laughing. That's my problem with doing comedy that I can't keep a straight face and especially when the actors are so good and playing their parts so well that you're just like, 'I can't stop laughing'. So, it took a few times. You know you do it two, three times and when the joke becomes a little old so then you are like, 'Ok fine, now I will give you the scene.'