Menu
We met up with Bollywood’s next on-screen lawyer, Yami Gautam, last evening for a group chat. The actress who is all set to don the black cape to fight for justice in Batti Gul Meter Chalu talks about her experience prepping to be a lawyer, what she thinks about unjust electric bills and more.
Here are some excerpts from our conversation with Batti Gul Meter Chalu’s actress Yami Gautam:
For those who didn’t know, actress Yami Gautam was regarded as quite a scholar during her student years. The actress also was a Law student – but didn’t graduate it.
Talking about her experience at the Bombay High Court, where she attended a holiday session to prep for her role in Batti Gul Meter Chalu, she said:
“I went to the Bombay High Court, and I thought usse zyada practical experience kya hoga! Mai chupke se aaram se peeche bhet gayi – unka ek session chal raha tha. Uske baad the lawyers were pretty kind enough to talk to me and patient to answer all my stupid questions –
‘Aise Hota hai kya jaise humare flimo me Hota hai? Konse filmo ke baare mai baat kar rahe ho – 90s ya abhi Wala kyuki 90s Wala then you have gone out of the park.’”
She continued,
“Dramatic of course Hota hai, up and down aise cheeze hote rahte hai. Jab aap lower court mai hote hai, tab aur bhi hota hai.”
Talking about doing typical roles in films, Yami said,
“I don’t want to do anything which is typical. And nor will I always get such opportunities.”
When asked about her favourite courtroom drama film in Bollywood she said,
“Mujhe toh Damini bahut pasand hai. I am a typical Bollywood buff but if aaj ki agar baat ki jaye – PINK I think was very real. “
Talking about working with Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, and her experience shooting the film she said,
“When I told Shahid that ‘I love your work and I love the kind of films you have done – we all kind of had a mutual admiration for each other. Even Shraddha (Kapoor) and I, me and Shraddha, me and Shahid , Shahid and me – all of us in some way. And, I joined them at a time when they were already comfortable working as a crew. When I joined them, I was the latest entrant to the family, so they were all very nice to me and I also went a bit prepared.”
Continuing,
“They were like ‘badi tayari kar ke aayi hu. Matlab hum dekh rahe hai stories mai ki tum High Court jaa rahi ho.’ So it’s nice when you have an actor who your working with who is known to for his intense performance in the past it keeps you on your toes.”
When asked if ever come across any electricity issue, Yami said,
“I haven’t personally. But I know, I’m aware because I have this Pahadi-Punjabi touch both. I was born in Himachal and raised in Chandigarh, toh mai kafi families se aware hu jo discuss karte the ki aaise aaise ho gaya hai.”
Elaborating further she said,
“Why this concept is enduring specially as it’s at the grassroots level and I connect kyuki aaisa nahi ki mere saath hua kyuki mere paas money hai par mai nahi dungi kyuki wo unfair hai. Agar mere pass hai hi nahi toh mai kya karu? What will I do? I thought this is very relevant, that’s where I personally connected.”
When asked about her upcoming projects, the Kaabil actress said,
“Oh, we have still 5 more months to go before this year ends so it’s going to be something exciting.”
Post Batti Gul Meter Chalu, Yami will be seen in Uri– a film based on the military-terrorist attack in Kashmir in 2016.
It is directed by Shree Narayan Singh and produced by Bhushan Kumar, Nishant Pitti and Krishan Kumar. Batti Gul Mater Chalu stars Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyendu Sharma, and Yami Gautam in lead roles. The film which deals with electricity theft in rural India releases on September 21.
