“Pregnant actresses can also work” – Neha Dhupia
Neha Dhupia has been earning much praise from her fans and members of the film fraternity for her portrayal of ACP Catherine Alvarez in the recently released film, A Thursday. A Thursday is directed by Behzad Khambata and stars Neha Dhupia, Yami Gautam, Dimple Kapadia and Atul Kulkarni in the lead roles. The film makes a case for capital punishment being meted out to rapists. In the film, Dhupia’s character is eight months pregnant and is also a cop on duty. She shares some intense scenes with Atul Kulkarni’s character and has to make difficult decisions on the bat.
“When we started doing the readings before I actually I met Atul on set, I wasn’t pregnant or anything and then the second wave happened and then we kind of met again after seven months and then he was told that I am pregnant and Behzad was brave enough to actually cast me as you know, as being pregnant in real life and also cast me as a cop. So Atul saw me again and he was just like will you be able to do this, are you ok and I am like yes, I am fine and he himself doesn’t have children so he has not been through the process of being with somebody who’s like so pregnant, there were times when he did not know what to do and then there were times when I had to confront him and say very very aggressive lines and then I would be fully out of breath, because I couldn’t like finish my lines sometimes and then he’ll be like ‘you wanna sit, you wanna do something’ and I will be like ‘no’,” she tells Filmfare in an exclusive interview.
“He was walking more on eggshells and then there was this one moment where he just hugged me and he was just like ‘how are you doing this like how are you standing in the rain from morning to night and being so so pregnant’ and I was just like, you just have to do it. I feel that’s the similarity I also had with Catherine Alvarez because right in the beginning, even she says that ‘hey, call of duty is more important’, she had to go for a doctor’s visit because she’s pregnant but the pregnancy is shown as such a regular thing in the film as well that it just adds such a great layer to the cop and maybe that’s the change even we want to bring about subconsciously or very consciously in the business as well that you know pregnant actresses can also work,” she adds.
