‘Bigg Boss’ season 11 winner Shilpa Shinde and Bengali film actress Darshana Banik have joined the cast of the forthcoming light-hearted family drama film ‘Boondi Raita’. Shilpa Shinde is playing the role of a supportive elder sister of Himansh Kohli in the film whereas, Darshana Banik will be seen playing the role of a middle-class Punjabi girl very first time in her acting career.
Shilpa Shinde and Darshana Banik were interacting with reporter to promote ‘Boondi Raita’ on Tuesday in Mumbai.
‘Boondi Raita’ is a North Indian food item made with spiced yogurt and boondi (crisp fried gram flour balls). The story of ‘Boondi Raita’ advocates the philosophy of “Believe in You” in a satirical way and revolves around a 25-year-old aimless youth called Brahamgupta Shrivastava aka Baggu (Himansh Kohli) and his middle-class family. It is the journey of Baggu’s struggle and his transition from a zero to a hero.
Darshana Banik has featured in several Bengali, Telugu films in the past and Bollywood film Ezra with Emraan Hashmi, talking about her character in ‘Boondi Raita’, she said, “When I heard the story of the film, I found it interesting and exciting and that’s how I decided to be a part of the film. I am playing the role of Bobby who is a very bubbly and typical middle-class Punjabi girl. Basically, I am Bengali so it’s going to be a very interesting experience for me to play the role of a Punjabi character for the very first time in my career.”
Darshana added that she will begin shooting the film in May, she said, “After a week, I will start preparing for my character in terms of body-language and diction. It’s a slice of life film and I think it is not easy to pull off comedy scenes as other scenes, so that is going to be a challenging part for me. I am excited to work with the entire cast and crew of the film. We will start shooting soon. so I am looking forward to starting shooting of the film.”
Shilpa Shinde is playing the role of an elder sister of Himansh Kohli in the film. She tries to bring peace in the house as Himansh and his father always argue with each other due to his lethargic approach towards life.
“It’s a light-hearted family drama film. The film is not entirely focused on one or two particular characters. I am playing Himansh Kohli’s elder sister and she supports her brother because Himansh’s character and his father does not get along well in the film, so my character tries to control things in the family.”
Shilpa Shinde was last seen in ALT Balaji’s web series named ‘Paurashpur’, when asked her whether she was skeptical before playing supporting role ‘Boondi Raita’, she said, “It’s a very positive, simple and sober character and people haven’t seen me that zone for a long period of time. I have a silent kind of romantic relationship with Ravi Kishan in the film and we are going to shoot the film in a beautiful city like Dehradun”.
She added, “I have always tried to play different characters in my career. I haven’t appointed any manager for my work and whatever offers I get, I try to pick good roles from those offers. I have always tried to play quality roles and I don’t think about the length of my characters. Since the past few years, we have seen actors like Pankaj Tripathi, Neena Gupta, Divya Dutta and Gajraj Rao who have done some amazing work in films. People call them as supporting actors but I think they are equally responsible for the success of their films, so similarly I will try to give justice to my character in this film as well and I hope that the audience will appreciate the film and my performance in it.”
‘Boondi Raita’ is directed by Kamal Chandra and Produced by Radhika G Films in Association with A2R Film. This film is produced by Ravi S. Gupta, Co-produced by Kuldeep Bhandari, Rahul Sharma and Rita Gadge The film features Himansh Kohli, Sonnalli Seygall, Ravi Kishan and Rajesh Sharma, Alka Amin, Ishlin Prasad, Neeraj Sood, Naresh Vohra, Vishisht Chamoli and Kunal Kuldeep in key roles.