Bhumi Pednekar’s first visit to Calcutta was a whirlwind one-day trip that involved all work and no play. “I didn’t get the chance to experience Calcutta at all, but I am taking a lot of mithai back,” beamed Bhumi when we met her at ITC Sonar late on Sunday after she wrapped up her professional commitments. A fresh-faced Bhumi, dressed in a simple chikankari pastel kurta was her usual radiant and congenial self as we settled down for a long, freewheeling chat. A t2 exclusive.

Your first trip to Calcutta should definitely have been longer than a day!

I know! I have been wanting to visit Calcutta for the longest time possible... but life and work just get in the way (smiles). I have never had the opportunity to come and promote any of my films here. In fact, Bala did have its promotions here, but only Ayushmann (Khurrana) and Yami (Gautam Dhar) came because I had three films that were releasing right after and I had a commitment with some other film and I couldn’t make it here.

I actually had a long list of food that I wanted to try when in Calcutta, but I won’t be able to do that this time because of lack of time. But I am taking a lot of mithai back! Kheerkodom is one of my most favourite things... I love it!

We have always read so much about Calcutta and its art and rich history. We have also seen so many versions of the city in our cinema. I really hope I get to experience the city soon.

I know that you are big on travel. Is there a place you visited recently that has your heart?

I had actually taken a month and a half off and I divided a few days between Dubai and London. For someone who loves to travel, these are mostly unexciting destinations because they are cities. But the food was great! I was in the middle of work and some personal time off and I have just resumed work.

I think the break was required. I had two releases (Bheed and Afwaah) at the start of the year. In December last year, I was busy with Govinda Naam Mera. Last year, I shot six films! I have four releases lined up this year. So I think I just wanted to step back and recalibrate where I am as an actor, and what I want to do. At times, when you are in the rut of just doing, you lose out on the joy of why you are doing something. This break was needed to reconnect to that joy and that feeling.

Having said that, the pandemic did give us that chance, but I feel like that was a time when we didn’t know what to expect when we were out of it. I did take that time to work on myself, we all got time with our families... but there were also so many heartbreaks because of the pandemic and an overriding feeling of gloom and doom. And I don’t know if everything that I thought then has remained applicable to the world after.

It’s been eight years since your debut film Dum Laga Ke Haisha. How do you look back at a career which started off in a very unconventional manner and has largely followed that path?

I feel like Dum Laga Ke Haisha released just yesterday. Time really flies but I also feel like a very wise old woman (laughs). I always say that I am living my dream, but it’s not been an easy journey. Everyone has their fair share of struggles and I have had mine too. Yes, I have been very, very lucky because I have got some fantastic opportunities.

But I am just getting started. I am re-energised for the next decade of my career. In two years, I will clock a decade which is a very, very long time. I am just gearing up for the 2.0 version of me. Through these eight years, I have also evolved a lot as a person. I have really worked hard on myself, and I just don’t mean physically. Physical attributes come and go. But I also know that I am in this phase where people are really taking notice of my fashion and beauty choices. That’s great because that’s also a part of me that’s always been there. It’s just that now I am putting it forward more.

But physical attributes are not constant. I am like this now, but maybe four months later, I may look different. I am a shape-shifter... I am not confined by the way I look and a lot of that confidence comes from my films. The films that I have done have given me the confidence to thrive...

Which started from your first film where you gained almost 30kg for the character. Very few actors would have done that on debut...

It’s only today, looking back, that I understand the kind of impact Dum Laga Ke Haisha had. When the film had released, I was younger and maybe not as wise. But today, as a mature woman, I understand why that film was so important on so many levels. When people see representation on screen, it gives them hope. A few of my films even after my first have fit into that rainbow (smiles).

With Dum Laga Ke Haisha, I was also lucky to have such a secure co-star like Ayushmann. It takes someone very self-assured to be able to share the limelight that he shared with me. I won quite a few awards for that film and there were so many occasions when Ayushmann was presenting them to me and he selflessly celebrated our film. After spending ‘x’ number of years as an actor, I have now realised that is not something that is easy to do. It’s not easy to stand there and selflessly support your co-actor... there are very few people who are able to do that.

Do you remember your first day on set?

Of course! The weight gain was there, of course, but I only realised what had happened once I watched the film. The Bhumi back then was very nervous, confused, unsure... I had to prove a point. I was scared that if I wasn’t good, they would recast me (laughs). And I was also scared that I didn’t have a casting job anymore (Bhumi started off working in the casting department of Yash Raj Films) and if I was recast, what the hell was I going to do?! I was definitely not going to get a casting job with YRF again. How would I pay my bills?!

It was very harrowing but I also drew a lot of strength from those insecurities. And I am glad that I wasn’t dealing with body issues at that point. The people around me made sure that journey was very healthy for me, but my insecurities were different. In a very nice way, my character’s (Sandhya) insecurities were never about her weight... they were about everything else. I think that really worked out for me.

Which of your films are you most emotionally attached to?

Badhaai Do has my heart. Sonchiriya is a piece of my soul. Saandh Ki Aankh is a film that still makes so many people come and tell me how much they liked it. It catered to an audience that doesn’t have many of their stories represented on screen. That film was an ode to my grandmother... there was so much of her that I mimicked in my character (Chandro Tomar).

Have you ever had second thoughts about doing a role? Even with so much talk about inclusivity, I am not sure how many of your contemporaries would have been okay with playing a gay woman in a mainstream Hindi film as you did in Badhaai Do...

You know, it’s these kind of parts that have always worked for me. I have grown up in an environment where having an opinion, caring about society, caring about the environment were always given a lot of importance. My art resonates with what I believe in. My films are the way that I am part of a cause... there can’t be a bigger platform for people to know what I align with.

It’s such a great power, right? I have a large number of people following me on Instagram. There is such a wide audience that is going to watch my films. I have to use it responsibly. Having said that, Badhaai Do was also a light-hearted film in many ways. Pati Patni Aur Woh is a standard commercial Bollywood film. She (her character Vedika) was an empowered girl but I also enjoyed doing the song and dance in Pati Patni Aur Woh because that’s what I have grown up watching. But through most of my work, I try and show the audience what I align with.

Does that also mean that you are not usually offered regular candyfloss films?

I am not! (Laughs) There are only a few directors who see the filmi side in me. Films like Bala and Toilet: Ek Prem Katha made more than Rs 100-crore at the box office and also had something to say. Badhaai Do released just after the lockdown. We could just have 50 per cent occupancy in theatres, movie halls in Delhi were closed, there were no night shows and still the film did a number (at the box office) which a lot of potboilers didn’t achieve.

I haven’t spoken about this, but I was a little discouraged that Badhaai Do had released then, in the middle of so many restrictions. As an artiste, I was so attached to the film and I knew its merits... I had seen the laughs and the cries in the film and I knew the impact it could have. But yes, it was always a tough sell because we are living in a country which is slightly homophobic... we have to accept it. But in hindsight, when so many awards came its way and the film came out on streaming, it was a life-learning. What I learnt after that film is that we often look at what somebody else has in order to measure our own success and happiness and that’s where we spoil things. What’s important is to see what satisfies us and that was my biggest learning from the Badhaai Do experience.

Is social media a pressure?

See, there is definite pressure. There is a very thin line between when you are enjoying it and when you are doing it as a chore. I was in the rat race, but now I don’t care. I do it for myself, I do it for the films I care about.

Does that mean I don’t care about social media at all? Of course I do! I am scrolling Instagram throughout the day (smiles). But what I choose to do with my social media has changed. I put a lot of who I am out there, I post when I want to.... Earlier it was a mandate to post all the time. Now, I don’t want to follow a formula to get followers. Whoever is interested in my life and work, will anyway follow me, like I follow the people I want to. For me, social media is very educational. It has such knowledgeable, enriched material. There is also a lot of fluff like puppy videos and travel reels which I absolutely love!

Is there anything that brought on this change in mindset?

I think some of it started during the lockdown. I was doing films which I believed in but I wasn’t those characters... I wasn’t someone from any of the small towns I have played. And every time I showed who I really am, people would say: ‘Oh she is trying too hard!’ And I was like: ‘No, I am this girl!’ I was very conflicted between servicing what people think I am or servicing my mental health, my state of mind. Self-acceptance, for me, came on gradually. People critique my fashion evolution, but these are things I truly love and enjoy. I was that teenager who always put in three hours to get ready!

The actor that I am today has come through experience. But when I dreamt of being an actor as a young girl, I wanted to do what Kajol was doing, what Karisma Kapoor was doing.... I went and bought a Raja Hindustani dress! (Laughs) I was that girl.

I was conflicted for very long when I started and then I told myself: ‘Bhumi, you have to let go. You have to be true to yourself.’ I am having a blast! I don’t care what people think. There are, of course, good days and bad days, but as long as I feel good wearing something and looking the way I am, I am fine. At the same time, I am not deaf to constructive criticism and I welcome it with open arms. But if your opinion is just to bring me down, then I am not going to allow that to faze me.

You are a ‘climate warrior' and have always been a huge champion of environmental causes. Did a specific instance spur that?

I have always been aware, even as a child. My family has always been aware of the socio-political conditions around the world and climate change is one of them. I grew up as a very climate-anxious young adult. I did not have many like-minded people who thought like I did. To date, many people think everything is fine. But a decade ago, people were even more ignorant.

Through time, through my work, I started meeting like-minded people and in the last four years, I met a lot of people who are very climate change conscious. And climate change redressal is not even a cause... it’s me trying to survive. This is a question of our survival as a whole. There are such large climate-change-related refugees. Look at our summers now. They are predicting Dubai is going to reach 56°C. London was so hot! I was promoting a film and my make-up wouldn’t stay. People there are not used to the heat like us.

The truth is that there is a certain class of society that is going to be most affected by climate change, as is in every crisis. But in front of the wrath of nature, we are all equal. A tsunami is not going to differentiate or have a bias. The rich, the more developed countries are the major polluters. We have to take responsibility for it as well.

How does sustainability form a part of your daily life?

In quite a few ways. It’s not like I have aced it. My life is so erratic, I don’t have a schedule. I try and make a difference through small things. I don’t use single-use plastic. My house has a bit of a circular economy going on, we compost at home. We are pretty much a wastage-free house, a lot of what we use is recycled. In many metros, there is an upgraded raddi system where you can send everything to be recycled.

What I do now is a part of my everyday life. I am not someone who will fill a huge tub and have a bath... I will die! (Laughs) I get anxious. Even on my sets, when I have scenes where the tap is running, I get uncomfortable and I voice it. I tell them that I understand it may be important to the shot, but I won’t be able to perform with that water running. So I ask them to have cheat shots because I just can’t do it! I have grown up as a climate-anxious person, it’s a very real thing for me.

SWIFT Six

Style to me is...A non-stop evolution of myself. My style has become more personal to what I want to wear, what makes me feel stylish and sexy as opposed to what others think I should wear.

My style on a chill-out day...If I am at home, a very old pair of pyjamas... the softest available in my wardrobe with a very really rundown T-shirt. Or a nightsuit.

My go-to outfit for an evening out with friends...

When I leave my house, I always dress up! I will have my make-up on, I will do my hair nicely because that’s what gives me peace of mind! (Laughs) I love wearing summer dresses. The monsoons are in full glory in Mumbai, so you would probably find me in shorts and a T-shirt.

On my travel bucket list...I want to go and see the Northern Lights. But because the time (to see the Lights) is so specific that getting everybody’s time in my family is very tough. But that’s definitely on my travel list.

My favourite travel partnerMy sister (Samiksha)

Commonalites and dissimilarites between me and Samiksha...To start off, it’s just the way we look. The world is convinced that we are twins, but we aren’t! (Laughs) It’s reached a point where my mother, at times, gets confused between us! At the core of it, the morals that our parents have imparted to us make us the same people. We are both very ambitious, we are very empathetic, opinionated, strong and independent and we have very big dreams. We are both very kind. But she is more practical than me... I am very, very emotional.

The superpower I want...I would want to be invincible. I would like my loved ones to always be around me, I would never want them to go