Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

The highlight of the film Chak De India was no doubt the eleven  young girls who essayed their roles as hockey with much panache.  In fact it doesn’t come much of a surprise that Sagarika Ghatge who played Preeti Sabharwal has become the new pin up girl. Some excerpts from a recent interview.

On Her Role:
"It was a dream come true, making a debut with Shah Rukh Khan. It is every amateur actor's dream, and it is now a reality for me. You can't ask for anything better", gushed Sagarika.

Though she always aspired to be an actress, she bagged the role in "Chak De" by pure luck. "I went for the auditions. In the evening, I got a call asking me to send them my photographs," recalled Sagarika. Without a proper portfolio at hand, the snaps that she had sent earlier were very ordinary ones. But finally, she got selected.

On King Khan:

"He is so focused and humble, I think he is the best. We learned so much from him. He gets so much into the character. I don't think anyone else could have done more justice to the character of the coach than Shah Rukh."

"He taught us the angles in which our appearance would look good. There have been instances when he just stood behind us so that we could get focused."

On Her Regime:

My field position in the film is center-forward and I was acquainted with all the skills that a player playing in that position should have," explains Sagarika. At times, Dhanraj Pillai would drop by to give some tips.

"Although it (the training) was tough but now I feel it was worth it. Coach Mir Ranjan Negi, who is also a former Indian hockey goalkeeper, trained us. He was too good. The relationship we shared with him was that of a father and daughters," the actress smiled.