There are strokes of myriad emotions and feelings on the canvas of Indian cinema, but Diana Penty feels beyond that, the whole movie-making business is a big gamble — but one that actors have to take.
“The whole movie-making business is such a gamble at the end of the day — something works, something doesn’t. It is a gamble you have to take. So yes, there is a certain amount of pressure, but I can’t let that govern the way I go about for my next project,” said Diana.
After her modelling stint, Diana ventured into Bollywood with “Cocktail” — which also featured Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone — in 2012. Her role of a demure Indian girl named Meera stayed with the audience despite the presence of Saif and Deepika.
But she maintained her distance from the big screen after her debut. She came back to the silver screen last year with “Happy Bhag Jayegi”, in which she was seen as a carefree Happy.
After back-to-back successes, one might think that there would be immense pressure on Diana to have a hat-trick. The actress says the mantra is not to sit and dwell over it.
“People used to ask me that since ‘Cocktail’ was such a huge success and I took so much time off, so was there pressure? I’d say, yes, there was pressure, but somewhere towards the end you get so involved in the project that you don’t have the time to sit and think about it and be like, ‘Oh my god, I have to be stressed right now’,” she said.
The two film-old actress feels she is too new to stick to a strategy for the road to success.
“I am too new to have a fixed strategy. I approach the projects by thinking whether the audience would like to watch it, does it keep me interested, or will it keep me hooked… Is it helping me to step out of my comfort zone,” she said, adding that she finds it important to “strike a balance between commercial and art films”.
