Sanjay Leela Bhansali has been my dream director, says Jhataleka Malhotra

From being a beauty pageant title holder to becoming a lead actress in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s production, Jhataleka Malhotra has come a long way. In a candid interview, Metrolife spoke to the ‘Tuesdays and Fridays’ star.

How did you land up with the offer?

I was doing an acting workshop at the time and SLB (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) productions were looking for new faces. Shobha Sant, with whom I had a meeting, had recently had a meeting with SLB. She gave me an idea about what they were looking for in terms of launching faces. A month after, I was called for a meeting with Bhansali. He asked me to send in some auditions. A couple of months after, I got the call saying SLB Productions wants to launch me.

Taranveer Singh, Anmol Thakeria, and you are making your Hindi film industry debut. How was it like working with so many new energies on the set?

Great! Because all three of us were sharing this milestone together. We were all very excited, and we put everything that we had because it was ride-or-die for us.

We brought that energy to set every single day and tried to be helpful to each other and enhance each other’s performance.

We talked a lot to the director and the writer in order to understand what they wanted out of the characters. I hope we have been able to do that.

What are the changes that you have experienced in your life after you were signed up for the film?

SLB Productions keep everything under the wraps and not many people know about it.

Not many people knew at that point that I was getting into the industry and that too with SLB Productions. I think, now I will see what changes. We had our announcement three weeks ago and the film promotion started right after. The immediate changes I’ve seen is on social media. There are a lot of people reaching out after watching the trailer and the songs, which is very new to me.

Did being a beauty pageant title help in entering the film industry?

Pageants definitely help you in terms of having an experience, and grooming yourself and getting to know yourself better, but I don’t think the pageant had anything to do with me getting the film. I started concentrating on film auditions only after I served as Miss India for a year. I wasn’t perceived as a beauty queen or a pageant winner or a model. I was going and giving auditions like any other new face.

What was it like working with Bhansali Productions?

I was extremely scared to have a meeting with Sanjay sir. He is a genius. He has given masterpieces to this industry. And his eye-for-detail is impeccable. I was very intimidated. He also happens to be my dream director. He was very welcoming and sweet.