Bhumi Pednekar on completing 10 years in Bollywood: I'm resilient enough to keep challenging the status quo

As Dum Laga Ke Haisha clocks in 10 years today, Bhumi Pednekar also completes a decade as a Hindi film actor, and she has only gratitude towards this journey. “I'm a lucky girl, who still gets to do what she loves so deeply. I still remember the day when the premiere of Dum Laga Ke Haisha happened. I was completely clueless, but so happy because I had no pressure for a hit or a flop. My first film was releasing and that was probably the greatest achievement of my life. I always tap into that energy when in doubt, thinking that if that girl did it then, you will survive it,” Bhumi Pednekar says.

The actor didn’t have a film background, and she started her acting journey with an unconventional role—of an overweight protagonist. She admits she has been making such choices ever since because she doesn’t want to confine herself. “I am not trying to fit into any space or do what any other colleague of mine has done, I do work that I resonate with. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but all of these are my choices that I'm proud of. I feel like you have to experiment and challenge your comfort. I've made a career out of it,” she says, adding, “I don't really have an ecosystem or an infrastructure that would keep giving me films irrespective of whatever the outcome of my previous film has been. The reason I get it, and I say it in the humblest way, is because I try my level best to at least give a certain level of a performance. That's why there are certain filmmakers that keep coming back to me.”

The actors that have come in Bollywood in the last decade can be divided as actors or celebrities, and Bhumi is glad that she is considered in the former: “I really hope that it continues because it truly is a badge of honour. I'm going to try my best that I don't ever let any kind of corruption come into my craft, because that day, my career will be over. I don't have a system that would keep providing for me and it is absolutely okay. It's not something that I'm bitter about or I feel bad about as I'm resilient enough to keep challenging the status quo that is created. And because I've earned this badge of honour, work will keep coming to me and I am very proud of it. The kind of legacy I want to leave behind is a legacy of an actor because those are the films that are watched time and again.”