The team of Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva has many reasons to celebrate. The fantasy action adventure film, which had a theatrical release on September 9, not only broke Bollywood’s dry spell but also garnered a staggering total of Rs 225 crore at the global box office (as per official figures) within its first weekend. And it seems like there’s no stopping the record-breaking numbers!
Made over a span of about a decade, the Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt starrer may have been receiving a mixed response on the internet but its antagonist Junoon played by actor Mouni Roy has received a thumbs-up from all quarters, rather unanimously. In the film, she plays a cool villain, who wears a chic black gown and conveys most of her fervent emotions by exuding streaks of red light through her eyes.
As Brahmāstra continues to keep the cash registers ringing, News18 exclusively catches up with the latest wonder woman. “I truly feel blessed and grateful. I didn’t imagine such a reaction. I didn’t think I would get so much of love, adulation and respect for playing Junoon,” says Mouni.
So, how has she been celebrating the smashing success of the film? “I’m celebrating it by working more. To be honest, I haven’t had the time to sink all the love in. It has been quite overwhelming. I’ve been traveling and shooting non-stop. I’m waiting to meet everyone and celebrate the success,” she shares.
Not the one to settle for anything less, Mouni wishes for the Ayan Mukerji directorial to rake in even bigger numbers. She remarks, “Though I’m very happy with what it has achieved so far, I think that there’s still a long way to go. We’re all hoping and praying that the film does really, really well.”
While Brahmāstra as a whole is extremely special for her, she holds her scenes with superstars Nargarjuna, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan particularly close to her heart. Rather smitten by the Telugu star, Mouni says, “We didn’t have many scenes together. I shot with him for two or three days in Devin, Bulgaria. I remember all of us women on set were gushing over him. Someone from the costume team came up to me and told me she felt that the song Tu Mile Dil Khile was playing in the background and that whenever she would see him, violins would start playing (laughs). He’s so handsome, inside and out. He’s such a solid and good person. He’s a brilliant actor and has an amazing screen presence.”
At the press conference of the film in Hyderabad last month, Nagarjuna was seen raving about her. Recalling the episode, she expresses, “I love Nagarjuna sir. I was so surprised to hear him complimenting me. I was just sitting there listening to everyone and he suddenly he said something nice about me and I went, ‘Wow, really?’”
While many female actors dream of romancing Shah Rukh onscreen, Mouni has a rather unusual dynamic with him in the film where she is seen locking horns with him. Ask her about it and she says, “Can you imagine my luck? But something is better than nothing (laughs).”
Sharing her excitement about acting with him, the 36-year-old says, “He’s was someone I was completely amazed by. He was the most charming, intelligent and spontaneous human being and actor that I’ve met. Oh my god! He’s brilliance personified. I used to have so many questions every single day and I would just go and ask him. He was so kind to answer everything. He gives love to everyone around him and all of us were in awe of Shah Rukh sir.”
She reveals that she shot with Big B for just one day and was rather star-struck. “The same goes for Bachchan sir. The one day that I shot with him, I was like a puppy on the set. I just didn’t know what to do because I was just so happy and ecstatic!” she recollects.
The road leading up to the success of Brahmāstra, however, wasn’t an easy one. The #BoycottBrahmastra trend picked up on Twitter in a big way and gave rise to doubts on the subsequent box office performance of the film.
But Mouni prefers not paying heed to them. She says, “It didn’t bother me but I would wonder why somebody would write such things even without watching the film first. If you watch it and then don’t like it, you can express so. But these are all phantom people, who are hiding behind their screens. They don’t have anything else to do and have surplus amount of time. So, they waste it doing these things.”
And about what a certain section of social media mocking her look in the film and calling her ‘desi Wanda’? “I read those comments but I forgot about them the next moment. They didn’t affect me,” Mouni asserts.
