"The Current Times Are ‘Achhe Din’ For Art-House Cinema", Says Adil Hussain In A Conversation With Kriti Sanon At IFFI 2018

Jyothi Venkatesh

The weather was already hot enough in Goa the last few days, but Kriti Sanon’s presence at Kala Academy in the early afternoon hours of 24^th November sent the temperatures soaring high as the actress showed up in a lovely red jumpsuit. The icing on the cake was Adil Hussain making a surprise appearance to join Kriti Sanon and the moderator Arjun Narula in an In-Conversation session titled, ‘Ms. Taken Identity - Getting To Know Kriti Sanon.’ It is important to note that Adil Hussain’s film, Abyakto, is being screened at IFFI this year in the Feature Film section of Indian Panorama. The session started with the actors expressing their love for Delhi – a city that they share fond memories of. While Kriti hails from the national capital city, Adil Hussain feels emotionally connected with the city and credits it for sort of ‘giving him a rebirth’. Adil was referring to his development as an actor during his days at National School of Drama.Before making a mark in the film and fashion industry, Kriti was born and raised in New Delhi where she pursued an engineering degree after which she moved to Mumbai. She made her acting debut with the Telugu psychological thriller 1: Nenokkadine (2014) and had her first Hindi film release in Sabbir Khan's action film Heropanti opposite Tiger Shroff for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Sanon went on to play the lead female role in two commercially successful films, the action-comedy Dilwale (2015), which ranks among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, and the romantic comedy Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017).The actress confessed that akin to some of the best events in her life, a career in acting was unplanned. While Kriti started her acting career from the South, Adil has worked in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Norwegian and French films over the years. When asked how these myriad film industries differ with each other, Adil Hussain said, “In the West, there is precise planning involved and the sets are quieter, unlike the culture here in India.” The National Award winning actor has recently acted in Norwegian film, What Will People Say that has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91^st Academy Awards. While elaborating further on the topic, the actor said that he has decided to not act in Tamil and Telegu films primarily because of the language barrier that prohibits the actor in him from going with the flow.Both Adil and Kriti have worked with women directors in the past. When asked if the experience of working with women directors is different as opposed to their male counterparts, Kriti failed to point out any distinctions stating that it is not gender-based but an individualistic trait. Adil, on the other hand, felt that there is a certain grace on the set of a film when a woman director is in control. He further said, “I feel, a female director tends to look at a role with a tad more empathy and compassion than a man would.”When asked by one of the audience members about how the parallel cinema or art-house cinema fares against the mainstream commercial cinema, Adil said that the current times look good for the former and it looks like things are going to improve. He said, “Film festivals and digital platforms have been showing great interest in films of this nature. The current times are ‘Achhe Din’ for Art-house cinema.”The past year has been full of work for Kriti and the next year looks exciting for the actress as her films are going to be released. Kriti said, “I have Luka Chuppi, Arjun Patiala and Housefull 4 for release next year. I am also looking forward to working with Ashutosh Gowarikar on Panipat, which will be my first period film.”Sriram Raghavan, best known for producing some of the grittiest thrillers in Hindi cinema was seen with brother Shridhar Raghavan in the audience.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News,  Iffi 2018, Kriti Sanon, Adil Hussain