An Interview With Bollywood Actress ANJALI PATIL. A Rising Star In Her Own Way.

Anjali Patil, a rising star from the Indian Film Industry, who has worked in around fifteen films and in eight different languages in India, was a guest at the London Indian Film Festival 2017. She was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award by the film festival which was previously given to the Life Of Pi actor Suraj Sharma. I was very lucky to have a conversation with the actress at the Courthouse Hotel situated next to the fashionable Carnaby Street. Read on to find out how she got into acting her present projects and her future endeavours in her acting career. An Interview With Bollywood Actress ANJALI PATIL

The London Tree: Hi Anjali, it is so nice to have you here in London. How is the city treating you?

Anjali Patil: London is amazing as always, and thank you for having me here. It is my pleasure.

The London Tree: Let’s start with you first. How did you get into acting?

Anjali Patil: I used to make up stories with magical characters which ranged from a wish fairy to a witch and beings from different worlds. I would tell those stories to the other kids at school. I would perform as those magical characters in front of the other kids which naturally brought this talent of acting in me. Unfortunately, the school did not have a performing arts department, but I did do a few radio plays which helped me immensely. The other aspect of performing arts I was interested in was dancing. I learned Kathak dance which is a very traditional one. These two factors encouraged me to get into acting , and that is what I made up my mind about pursuing in my life. My only obstacle were my lovely parents who wanted me to become a medical doctor, which I did get into, but after some time I realised that this field is not for me. Thus I left my medical course and placed myself into Pune University where I did my graduation in the Drama School. It proved very fruitful for me because I bagged myself a Gold Medal, which was also the first ever medal in the family’s history. I further did my Post Graduation in National School of Drama and found myself doing what I had pursued to do. An Interview With Bollywood Actress ANJALI PATIL

The London Tree: You’ve worked with Director Rakesh Om Prakash Mehra in MIRZYA, and now you both are together in MERAY PIARAY PRIME MINISTER. How did you two get the idea to do a film together again?

Anjali Patil: Actually we both wanted to collaborate with each other after MIRZYA. I worked in Mirzya only because I wanted to understand Rakesh’s work ethics. This enabled me to take a step further and make a good connection with him which proved to be very fruitful. Although, after Mirzya we both went our own ways, but I kept in contact with him through emails, even though I had been travelling the world for work and pleasure purposes. Director Rakesh then came up to me and informed me about his new project, in which he wanted me to play the mother of an eight year old boy. I immediately accepted his offer and soon got the script. We both worked on it daily for a month. For the first time I found myself working with him on a full scale level, and I learned so much from him. An Interview With Bollywood Actress ANJALI PATIL

The London Tree: The topic in MERAY PIARAY PRIME MINISTER is about toilets and people usually hide the fact of the lack of toilets in India. What do you think would people’s reaction be once the movie comes out?

Anjali Patil: It is true that people hide this problem and don’t talk about it, but this movie will give them an awareness about the lack of toilets, and that these facilities are a part of their primary basic rights. It will hopefully make people stand up to demand their basic sanitation and hygienic facilities. The lack of toilets has also caused some very horrendous incidents, in which rape is on the top, and women are the main victims of it. In this movie, the point of view of the kid is to build a toilet for his mother. An Interview With Bollywood Actress ANJALI PATIL

The London Tree: You have worked with Sir Om Puri in your acting career. What was it like working with him?

Anjali Patil: Sir Om Puri will always be there because I can’t believe that he is gone. It is as if he still in this world and believe me, I did not feel sad on his demise because I still feel that he is alive and around us. I did my first film CHAKRAVYUH with him and it brought us so close that he kind of adopted me as his own daughter. He used to call me his Comrade, and I used to call him Om Baba and then we did MIRZYA, in which we were actually a father and daughter. The perception of him being no more in this world is something that does not exist. An Interview With Bollywood Actress ANJALI PATIL

The London Tree: You are now working with South Indian Super Star Rajnikanth in KAALA. Again, I want to know how is it like working with him?

Anjali Patil: I am so fortunate to work with him. He is every bit of a celebration. He is everything which is said, heard and talked about. He is just not a super star, but someone whom you look and learn from. What ever I would try to say about him will not do justice to who and what he is. He has got a such a lovely way of treating people around him, the film crew, fellow actors and especially his fans. An Interview With Bollywood Actress ANJALI PATIL

The London Tree: You have worked in fifteen films in eight different languages. How do you manage when you are doing two different movies in two different languages?

Anjali Patil: Thanks for telling me those numbers, I didn’t even know that I did films in eight different languages. I love to take a challenge, and learning different languages. Tamil has a very different acting style, Hindi has a different acting style, every state with its own language has its own acting style. NIMMO, which is another one of my films set in Andhra Pradesh in which I worked opposite Anand Adhrai shows a completely different culture and language. i enjoy being pushed to my limit intellectually as an artist and an actor.

The London Tree: You just got an Outstanding Achievement Award in the London Indian Film Festival 2017, which is a very rarely given to anybody. How does it feel to bag this award?

Anjali Patil: I had a mixed reaction to getting this award. I was both surprised and at the same time expecting it too because my films from the year 2011 to 2016 were shown in the British Film Institute which include CHAKRAVYUH, DELHI IN A DAY all the way to my recent film MIRZYA.  I was quite overwhelmed with it. Seven of my films haven’t yet been released out of fifteen so they will release probably in the near future. Appreciation is like a nectar. It feels so nice when you see people appreciate your work which probably no one saw when it was released. I am very thankful to CARI and BAGRI foundation for the award and they are dong an incredible job.

The London Tree: It was such a pleasure talking to you Anjali. I wish for you the best in your future endeavours.

Anjali Patil: Thank you too for such kind words and wishes.

Title Image: Urban Asian

Special Thanks to Media Hive for making this Interview possible.