Mandira Bedi On DDLJ Shoot: 'It Wasn’t Fun And I Was Like, What Have I Got Myself Into?’

Mandira Bedi revealed how she landed her first acting role in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, despite not intending to pursue acting initially. She also mentioned in a recent interview with Curly Tales that her experience during the shoot wasn’t enjoyable. Mandira shared that she initially aimed to follow her older brother into banking but ended up studying media communication at Sophia College. Her internship at Prahlad Kakkar’s office led to her breakthrough role in the TV show Shanti.

Mandira Bedi then starred in the 1995 film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge as Preeti. When reminiscing about the shoot, she remembered starting with the song Mehendi Laga Ke Rakhna. Mandira shared, “ “I remember Saroj Khan telling me, ‘you are shaking your shoulder like Sunny Deol, you need to shake your hips, women shake their hips, men shake their shoulders’. So I was like, ‘okay, this is not a good start’. And I have very little grace in me. I can lift weights and I can run miles, but I don’t have adayein. Woh adayein mujh mein bilkul bhi nahi hai. It was a little horrifying for me.”

She described filming the song over four days as a completely new experience compared to her role in Shanti. “Four days, where I am asked to do things I have never done before. Move parts of my body which I have never moved before so let me tell you it wasn’t fun and I was like ‘what have I got myself into?’ With Shanti, I was giving this hard strong looks, but with Preeti I was made to do many things I have never done before,” she said.

Not long back, she had also opened up to Humans of Bombay about the shoot. She had said, “It was lovely shooting with Shah Rukh Khan, because he just made me feel so comfortable. He is such a natural, he is so kind. Even with my retakes with the song he was very accommodating and very nice. Kajol also, she didn’t take to me the first few days, but eventually she did, and we all got along really well. It was just a really nice experience, all told, in my 22 days. I look back at it with a lot of gratitude, it’s definitely one for the books.”