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Actors Divya Khossla and Neil Nitin Mukesh are currently gearing up for the release of their film Ek Chatur Naar. In the film, Divya is playing a girl who lives in a slum in Lucknow, while Neil plays a rich businessman. During the making of the film, Divya was tricked to do a shot near a gutter and was made to live in a slum for nearly a month.
Actor Archana Puran Singh recently visited the T-Series office along with actor Parmeet Sethi and their son Ayushmaan Sethi for their new series: ‘Dabbe Mein Kya Hai?’ As part of the series, they visit film personalities and share their home cooked lunch. During their conversation, actress Divya shared how she was made to live in a slum and the struggles she went through to learn the local language.
She said: “I didn’t know the UP language, but I learnt it and practiced it at home. Later, our director made me live in a slum for almost a month.” Her director Umesh Shukla, who is known for films like 102 Not Out, added: “There is this place called Badshah nagar in Lucknow, that is where we shot this film. It is a real slum.”
Divya then shared how her jhopdi (hut) was right next to a ganda naala (gutter). “I eventually got used to the bad smell.”
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Hearing these stories, Parmeet told his viewers: “Look at the lengths at which an actor goes to make a film.”
The director then opened up about how he had to trick his actors to do shots in these locations. He shared: “Sometimes, we didn’t even tell our actors where was their next shot. The naala scene that we made Divya do, we didn’t inform her about the location. We just took her there and made her stand there.”
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Divya recalled the traumatic experience and shared: “Oh My God! It was an open naala, I was standing at the verge of the naala. I was this close to falling in there. I was extremely scared.” Adding to Divya’s story, her co-star Neil joked: “The naala was extremely fresh with fresh garbage.”
Divya continued to talk about the things she did for the film. “They made me do everything including Jhadu, katka, pocha sab.” Parmeet joked: “When you are fated to do a certain thing, life makes sure to make you do all that in some or the other way, irrespective of who you are.”
Divya continued: “Growing up, I had this wish to do the dishes. Every year when I used to visit my grandmother’s house, I would immediately do all that and get a lot of scoldings.”
Speaking about one of Divya’s monologue which was revealed in the film’s trailer, Umesh shared how it was all improvised by the actor. “Divya surprised me with a huge monologue, which is now getting extremely popular. I have no idea from where did she work that out.”
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Divya explained: “As soon as I signed the film, I began to watch videos of influencers from Uttar Pradesh to understand the kind of slang they use. Then later, I also summoned all our staffs who are from office, and interacted with them. I asked them to teach me a couple of cuss words.”
Divya and Neil Nitin Mukesh’s film is all set to release in theater on September 12.
