Three years in Mumbai but still an outsider, is how Kriti Sanon feels about being in the city

Kriti Sanon is just two films old in Bollywood, but so far, she has been lucky to have worked with established production houses and actors. After her debut film Heropanti (2014), she was a part of Dilwale (2015) and after a year’s break, her next film Raabta, with co-star Sushant Singh Rajput releases this Friday (June 9). While she is nervous about being third time lucky, Kriti says that it was a special experience to play two characters in the film with reincarnation as the backdrop.

“Raabta is a special film. I liked the script from Day 1 and it has stayed with me for over two years now. It was challenging yet exciting to play two characters as it’s tricky to make people believe in both characters in such a short span of time. I had a two month gap between playing both characters, so that helped me with my thought process. Also, what’s interesting is that this kind of an alien world hasn’t been explored in Indian films, like The Jungle Book and The Avatar space,” Kriti says.

She moved base from Delhi to pursue a career in films and while she says that Mumbai now feels like home, Kriti is still to feel at ease with industry insiders. “I am not so many films old to be known as an insider so I do feel a little out of place. I don’t know a lot of people and don’t attend too many parties, so in that sense, I still feel like an outsider. But my house in Mumbai, feels like home. My sister, Nupur has moved in with me and we have a pet dog at home so I don’t miss Delhi so much. My parents also keep visiting me often so I am not home sick anymore,” she says.

Was being a newcomer with absolutely no connections in Bollywood tough? “I have been very fortunate. It’s not easy to meet big directors, especially for people who don’t belong from here. Nepotism does exist, it always did. And it exists in every industry. I do feel that star-kids get a lot more opportunities but there are also people like Anushka (Sharma), Deepika (Padukone) and Sushant who have managed to make it. So, as long as the opportunities are balanced, I think its fine.”

A lot about Sushant and Kriti’s supposed romance has been written about on social media, but the actor says that all this talk hasn’t affected their equation. “Initially, when the link up stories came out, it did bother us because there was no truth to it. It got on my nerves but then we started ignoring it. Eventually, we made peace with it and then we laughed it off. We are two people who gel well together. We looked out for each other even while shooting and we bond over food more than anything else,” she says.

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