It’s often difficult to inhabit an unreal space with a real sibling. Given the friendly vibes that Siddhanth and Shraddha Kapoor share, it must have been challenging to share an intense space on the screen as Dawood and Haseena Parkar in Apoorva Lakhia's forthcoming biopic on the don's sister.
"It was a bit of a challenge. Like I remember, during one of our early days into the film, we shot a scene in which I was being beaten up. Shraddha as Haseena had to cry; she actually started crying and while the scene was being shot, I couldn’t even wipe her tears. After it was over, I hugged her. So, yeah, Haseena and Dawood saw a lot of ups and downs together, which we have tried to portray. It required a lot of switching on and switching off between the shots because the scenes sometimes get so overbearing that you continue to live them even when the camera is off. Our shoot went off well because apart from being siblings, we’re friends. Come to think of it; it’s easier getting into a character than getting out of it. The lens, the prosthetics, the clothes and the set help you get in but it’s sometimes very difficult to get completely out of the character. If you notice, I’m still sitting like Dawood. As for sharing screen space with Shraddha, we used to do a lot of nautanki in front of the mirror at home as kids, and we’re still very comfortable in each other’s company at work. My mother used to shoot our videos on her camera. Those are hilarious videos which I must show the world," says Siddhanth, adding that he would still have been as comfortable working with Shraddha had they not been playing bhai-behen on screen.
Siddhanth was the first actor to sign up for Haseena Parkar. Sonakshi Sinha had been cast as Haseena. It was only after she walked out that Shraddha stepped in. Did the change affect him? "I don’t think too much about it. It was a blessing that my sister and I ended up working together. That’s what matters. My sister slipped into it rather quickly, which was fantastic," he says.
Marking Shraddha Kapoor’s first ever biopic, ‘Haseena: The Queen Of Mumbai’ will hit the theatres on 22
nd September.
