Even as Bala continues to play to packed houses across the country, Yami Gautam is far from the madness of showbiz. The actress is shooting for her next — Ginny Weds Sunny, with Vikrant Massey around Dehradun. “We started this film almost immediately after Bala ended and we are on the last leg here,” she says on a very patchy phone call from the hills. Network has been so bad where Yami is that this interview was done in two rounds separated by days when we just kept attempting to get in touch.

“On some days it’s great to not have network and on others everything gets piled up because no one can get in touch with me,” she says with a laugh, when we finally connect. The upside to shooting up north for Yami is that she can take some time off to celebrate her birthday (on November 28) with her family in Chandigarh. “I’ve begged my manager to give me some time off so I can spend time with my family. I haven’t been in Chandigarh with my family for my birthday for so long,” she adds. It’s not just a birthday that Yami is going to be celebrating. It’s been a good year for her that started with the staggering success of Uri: The Surgical Strike and (almost) ending with Bala.

Congratulations! What has the last fortnight since the release of Bala been like for you?

It’s been very hectic but I am very overwhelmed with the response that the film is getting and how much people are loving my performance. I’ve got messages from people from the fraternity, media, fans… it’s been amazing.

Has there been a message from someone in the fraternity that means a lot?

It always feels good when actors who you look up to or are your contemporaries reach out to appreciate your performance, but there is one message that made me very sentimental. When I read Pari’s character, I started thinking of actresses who had done fantastic comedic roles in the past. And I immediately thought of Sridevi ma’am. She could do a Sadma and a Chaalbaaz and be amazing in both. I laugh every single time I watch her in Chaalbaaz or Mr India. Janhvi’s (Kapoor, Sridevi’s daughter) message about Bala had an emotional connect for me. It was very special.

You’ve had successful films like Vicky Donor, Kaabil and Uri. But would it be correct to say that Bala could be a turning point for you? It just feels like there’s a lot more focus on your and your performance compared to the earlier films...

This does feel different and exactly for the reason you mentioned. Right from my first Hindi film (Vicky Donor), I proved that I was here to perform. Kaabil, again, was a good performance and Uri had me in a completely new avatar. I don’t know why it’s taken the industry this long to notice my work or me. (Pauses) Maybe I was stereotyped.

Really?

Yeah… I think so. They were thinking, ‘She is a sweet-looking girl so let’s give her that kind of roles’, whereas I wanted to do really versatile and meatier roles. I always knew that I can deliver but I just had to wait for filmmakers to put that faith in me. That is what took some time. What was important for me was to keep working on myself and give the best to the roles that were coming my way. This year, I think, with both Uri and Bala, everyone has seen new sides to me. This year I’ve heard people say that they were ‘surprised’ to see me in these roles.

It’s been seven years since Vicky Donor. What has been the hardest thing about adapting to Bollywood and understanding its ways?

I don’t have family connections in Bollywood and I don’t have friends who I can lean on to get work. I am, by nature, very reserved. So, I am not someone who will be seen at the industry’s social events. I really don’t know how to network. I know that everyone needs to evolve and change as per their circumstances and I know that I have changed in these seven years, but this is one of those things that hasn’t changed. So, then what happens when your films don’t do well is that your options keep getting limited. The films that came your way might not be the right ones but you do them because you can’t stop working. You have to keep the momentum up and give your best to every film while hoping that something will come along that will click.

Pari in Bala was that role for you. What is it about Pari that has made the audience love her so much?

I am told that people haven’t seen a character like her in a while. One conversation that I had with Amar (Kaushik, the film’s director) often was to be careful to not make her feel like a caricature. What you see is what you get with Pari. She loves drama and she wants her life to be OTT. At no point is she trying too hard to be funny... she just is. She is a TikTok star and a model in Lucknow but is also very naive and vulnerable. A lot of people have told me that they know someone like Pari.

She is so far removed from who you are in real life. Was she an easy character to play?

Though Niren (Bhatt) had written such a brilliant character, I had to put in a lot of work. I had to understand and learn everything from the way she talks to the way she thinks. She lives her life like there are cameras all around her all the time. I learnt something while making Uri that helped me during Bala as well. There were too many references for my character in Uri. I had a lot of questions for Aditya (Dhar, the writer-director of Uri). He told me that every good script should answer all my questions, provided that I had read it enough to know what the first word of the next page would be. Of course, all of us read our scripts but now I have started following Aditya’s suggestion. And, while I was reading and re-reading the script, I started figuring how she’d laugh or cry.

My first day of shoot was the scene where Pari gets to know his truth (that her husband Bala, played by Ayushmann Khurrana, is bald). I was very nervous. I didn’t want to start with that scene. Amar was very confident that I’d be able to pull off that scene on the first day but I wanted some time to ease into the character. I was so nervous that I couldn’t sleep the night before.

This film reunited you with Ayushmann after Vicky Donor. Did it feel like seven years had passed in between the two films?

The only difference between the two films was that for Vicky Donor we had a lot of rehearsals. For Bala, we had one reading before we started shooting. We met properly only once he was already Bala, with his prosthetics and everything. I am so glad that after the success of our first film we got back together for a film like Bala. Ashima and Vicky are poles apart from Bala and Pari.

The TikTok videos that your character makes in the film were some of the most fun bits of Bala. You are a ’90s kid. Did you enjoy recreating those iconic songs?

When Amar first told us about the TikTok videos, he didn’t mention that we have to dress up as the original actors. Forget Ayushmann and me, the entire crew was so kicked about shooting those videos. We shot all of them on one really hot day in Lucknow. We had multiple wigs and looks, but we had a blast. I really enjoyed the Govinda-Karisma song (Husn hai suhana). The trick to doing those videos convincingly was to just give into the filmi-ness of it all without trying to be funny.

Bala talks about insecurities that stem from external pressures to look a certain way. You also endorse a fairness product. That’s mixed messaging, isn’t it?

As an actor, I wanted to be a part of a brilliant film where I had a great role. As for the product, all I can say is that you don’t see the same kind of messaging that they had before. Times are changing and brand is also evolving, as it should. Every person must define beauty for themselves. Be happy and confident about who you are inside-out. Colour shouldn’t matter!