Swara Bhaaskar takes on a challenging role

Any 27-year-old aspiring Bollywood actress would be shocked if she is asked to play the role of a mother of a teenage girl, for it could undermine her career. Swara Bhaaskar was no exception. But today she doesn't regret having done precisely that. 

In her next film “Nil Battey Sannata” (being an absolute zero or incompetent), directed by Ashwini Iyer Tiwari, Swara appears in the role of the mother of a 15-year-old girl. The film also features Ratna Pathak, Pankaj Tripathi and Ria and will hit the theatres on April 22.

Swara, who essays the role Salman Khan's sister in “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo”, told reporters on Monday that she was initially reluctant to play the role of mother of a teenage girl. 

“When the casting director Mukesh Chhabra came with this idea of a mother-daughter film, I thought I had to play the role of a daughter. I was shocked and told him that my career will go down as it's a mother's role,” Swara said at the launch of the trailer of “Nil Battey Sannata”.

“I get to play a mother in the latest film… soon I might even get offer for the role of a grandmother,” she said in a lighter vein.

Swara said actresses typically play roles suitable to their age or roles of younger people. “There were people who told me it's not a good idea to do this role in 'Nil Batte Sannata'. I was scared about my image,” the actress said, adding that when she read the story of the film she, however, fell in love with the idea.

Swara said she had initially thought of refusing to play the role. “I thought I will just read the script as the casting director is a friend and say that I did not like the story. But rather I loved it,” she said.

Swara said she was told by the director to gain weight for the mother's role.”I was asked to gain 10 kg. So I kept eating and eating. But midway through the shoot, she (Ashwini Iyer Tiwari) told me to lose some weight as I was looking a bit too healthy,” she said.