New Delhi: Neha Dhupia plays the mother of a young footballer from Kerala in her new film 52 Blue. Adil Hussain plays the strict and protective father. Directed by Ali El Arabi, the film marks Dhupia’s first international feature film.
The film has been selected to open the London Indian Film Festival on July 10 and will also premiere at BFI Southbank on July 9.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dhupia said 52 Blue is the most de-glamourised role of her career, a departure from much of her earlier filmography, where she often played glamorous characters or had limited screen time in films such as Tumhari Sulu and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.
“After all these years, it’s so difficult to break that. This is something I have been fighting for over 20 years, starting from my first film. I always hoped I would get this chance,” she said.
Speaking about working with El Arabi, she added that the director saw her as a complex, dutiful woman from rural Kerala and envisioned her in a role she had never imagined for herself.
Dhupia made her acting debut with Qayamat: City Under Threat, starring Ajay Devgn, Arbaaz Khan, Suniel Shetty and Sanjay Kapoor. The film was based on The Rock, directed by Michael Bay and starring Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris. Dhupia played the love interest of Devgn’s character, Rachit.
Although she played the female lead, director Harry Baweja felt her natural voice did not suit the character and had it dubbed by voice artist Ranjika Ganguly Mukherjee.
Dhupia recalled that filming 52 Blue was unlike anything she had experienced before, both creatively and physically. Much of the shoot took place on water, with the actors filming from boats while the crew worked from a distance.
“Stepping inside those marshy kinds of spaces was something I had never done,” she said.
She added that on the final day of the shoot, the team had to be evacuated from the island.
Although 52 Blue marks her first collaboration with Hussain, Dhupia said he was easy to work with and described acting alongside him as a learning experience.
“It was like going back to school and getting paid for it,” she said.
The film is currently on the international festival circuit, and its India release date has not yet been announced.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)