GRACY SINGH: STILL ON CLOUD NINE

By Fuad Omar.

The girl who stole hearts as Gauri in Lagaan, danced her heart out effortlessly and is a major contributor to one of Indian cinema's landmark films is as sweet as her on-screen character. An actress who has proved herself in one film alone and made such an impact, yet still has her feet firmly rooted on the ground, Gracy Singh is someone who deserves the success she's seen in such a short period.

Almost a year after Lagaan's release, I catch up with the young girl who I didn't recognise when I first met her because I was expecting a village belle complete with paayal and dancing feet to waltz into the room. A down-to-earth actress who is heading to further heights of success fast - I give you coffee, tea and Gracy. Meeting for a coffee at Juhu's Centaur Hotel, we begin by discussing Lagaan' s phenomenal success, Oscar chances and the reaction abroad. After chatting away for over half an hour I realise we should start the interview before it gets even later and so the Q and A begins. 

How do you look back at the Lagaan experience? 
"Lagaan was a once in a lifetime experience for me. It's such an honour to be part of that film and through it I achieved much more than I ever imagined in my life. It's been a really amazing experience. And I know nothing will be better than this film or experience, so in a way it's also sad because if you start at the top you only move in the opposite direction!" 

Where do you go from here - Your first film, offers? 
"The scripts aren't as strong as Lagaan nor are the roles as powerful, so I' m aware of the transition. The makers come offering films before their script is even ready so I'm aware that Lagaan was unique. It took five years to make Lagaan, the script itself took so long and then we shot in one schedule at a stretch and nobody does that. So I'm having a very tough time adjusting to the industry because I've worked with the most organised and professional people with Lagaan and I find a lack of creativity in comparison to the Lagaan experience from other quarters. I hope the new generation and these young filmmakers who are now coming on the scene will have better ideas, and I pray the situation improves a bit." 

With Lagaan going to the Oscars, people cheering for you everywhere and the phenomenal reaction on the world tour, how does it feel to connect with such a global audience? 
"It's the most thrilling experience of my life! I personally am very critical of my own work and when I hear of this kind of reaction it makes me more confident, the response is terrific. It raises expectations of me and I hope I can live up to them and do a better job in the future, but Fuad I'd like to say that the entire credit of this I have to give to the makers of Lagaan namely Aamir and Ashutosh. They've put so much effort into my role and the film and you know, I was cribbing in the shooting. Because it's every little girl's dream to dress up with good make up and look beautiful and glamorous and Gauri was not a glamorous character and so I never got a chance to do it so I hated that. Then there were long shooting hours and it was a hectic schedule, but you can see every effort on screen and the result is superb. I was myself shocked with the final product because even on the sets I was not allowed to see the monitor and the results of each day's shoot, all I was told was to be the character, to be Gauri. It was an intense learning experience. It got to the stage where I lived the character and it took me some time to get out of that simple girl when I came back to Bombay after shooting. I remember walking around looking at all the tall buildings and the cars and it felt surreal compared to 1893's village that we recreated on screen. It's like living so many different lives when you're acting. Even today if someone calls out to someone called Gauri I react to it as though it's my name, I've become quite possessive of that name!" 

What roles did you take on after Lagaan, how did you find the roles being offered to you differing from your debut? 
"I took a long time to select what to do next because even though I was offered a lot of roles I found none to be as good as Lagaan and I was naturally measuring up each offer to my first film. But there were some interesting roles and average scripts but nothing as unique as Lagaan. I'm now playing a good variety of roles, in one film I'm playing a simple girl again but with a dash of glamour and it's a performance-oriented role too, so it's all three at the same time and I'm really enjoying it." 

What role would you really like to assay? 
"I'd like to play an Indian modern girl of today's time. Something like Kajol in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, wasn't that amazing? That's like a dream role." 

Were there any fears of being typecast after taking such an unconventional role as your debut? 
"There were talks of me being typecast and people were saying 'we'll have to write some simple village girl roles for you' but I didn't let it affect me. To be honest the success of Lagaan just put me on such a high that nothing affected me, let these people say these things! I took it as that's fine, everyone's doing western glamour roles, let me do something different then. It's such a unique debut for me and I honestly believe no one has got a launch film like the one I have, Lagaan is such a wonderful film. I never planned to become an actress, it just happened. This film was somehow destined to come my way and I've achieved this and it's made me part of a historical film so I've done something already in life and can go towards the future with that reassurance." 

Tell me a little about your background. 
"I belong to a very simple Sikh family with a traditional Punjabi background, and never planned to become an actress. I knew I always wanted to do something in the creative field like singing or dancing or designing, but never acting. I started a bit of modelling while I was in Delhi doing a few ads, then I was introduced to Sanjeev Bhatnagar who was looking for a Punjabi girl for his serial so I did that role but at that time I was a very bad actress. That was four years ago, and when he casted me I told him I had never acted before and didn't know if I could act. He said 'leave it to me' because he's known for casting newcomers and he grooms them, which was amazing. Slowly I realised this was the only thing I could do in life and couldn't imagine doing anything other than acting. I learnt a lot and how to communicate on screen and doing 150 episodes is great practice and what I'd consider my schooling. I was called for a screen test for Lagaan and since Aamir was my favourite actor I really just wanted to go out there and do my best and felt if I got this I would have graduated. They told me they wanted a typical Vaijyanthimala look and were looking for suitability of the character and things just worked!" 

You had your first world tour which began with the US shows last September, how did it feel? 
"Wow, it was my first world tour and chance to see the reactions and response of the people and I was really surprised that people were treating me just like the other stars! I couldn't accept the fact that I'm a star now, and especially abroad you feel it. It's such a warm welcome and you never forget it. It's such a moral boost. It's a blessing." 

Lagaan is a film that gave you the opportunity to show a rainbow of emotions of love, hope, loss, and anger. What was the most difficult emotion you had to portray in the film? 
"There's one emotion I have never experienced in my whole life and that is jealousy. I had such a tough time doing that side of Gauri because I have never fallen in love and so I didn't understand how someone could be jealous, I thought why should such a beautiful woman and person feel jealous, how could they feel this insecurity, I just couldn't understand it, my God! I was really trying to get into the character and was portraying this girl who's lover is attracted to another and was doing this in my own way which was not right for the director. In the end I copied his expressions for a few shots and slowly began to understand and master it, so you could say by the end of Lagaan I became an expert of understanding jealousy! It reminded me of the emotions I felt as a child when my sister sat in my mother's lap and I felt slightly jealous, I drew from that experience! But you don't need to drink to play a drunkard or something like that, you don't have to have experienced the emotion to be able to act it out. 

How are you coping with your new found stardom? 
"I think doing a serial at the beginning of my career was a good thing. You get to learn and grow and no one cares about your private life. Now after Lagaan the media are very interested in you and want to know your every move and make things up so I'm having a tough time adjusting to the stardom. I don't mind minor criticisms being written of my performances but to write something that's just wrong is really disturbing. I'm very wary of the media and respect their profession but they should not play with someone's life or get into their personal matters. I hope things go smoothly." 

You bagged the Screen Award earlier this year and have been nominated in so many others, what do awards and award functions mean to you? 
"Award functions for me is just like a celebration, but the real appreciation is the acceptance of the audience. The real charm of award functions is that I get to sit with my favourite film stars and see the entire industry which is wonderful! But as for being nominated and all, it doesn't excite me that much. The award matters more to others because they treat you differently when you get an award. It's encouraging for a newcomer to be nominated or to win an award for their first film but it doesn't mean that you've proved your talent, and the jury doesn't decide whether your film is good or bad, the audience decides, so it's just an award and nothing to get carried away about." 

What would you like to say to your UK audience who have loved and appreciated you in Lagaan? 
"I'm really thankful to everybody, all the audience that has appreciated me and am thankful for their love. I hope to come to London soon and just want to send all my best wishes to them."