Actress Sonakshi Sinha, mostly seen as the traditional Indian girl on the screen, will be seen as a boxer in a sequence in A.R. Murugadoss' forthcoming directorial "Holiday: A Soldier is Never Off Duty". She says "personality wise, the role is closest to me as possible".
There are not many leading actresses in the Hindi film industry who shed their "girly" look to play a strong sportsperson on the big screen. But Sonakshi, who has also studied fashion designing, has no qualms about essaying such roles.
"I was interested in it immediately because I played sports in school and college. Personality wise, the role is closest to me as possible. It was like being myself on screen and doing what I love to do," Sonakshi told IANS here.
"I would love to do a film in the future where I can explore this facet a little bit more where I can play sports probably longer," added the actress, known for serenading the big screen in saris-backless blouse or bright coloured traditional attires with her curls left loose in movies.
For the scene, in which she is seen as a boxer participating in an inter-college championship, she took some training from Olympics bronze medallist Vijender Singh and her co-star Akshay Kuma too gave her tips to prepare for the role.
"Yes, I did (take training) but I've always been a sportsperson. The basic body language has always been there. I play a lot of sports like tennis, basketball and volleyball but boxing is something that I've never done before and I needed help on it," said the 26-year-old.
She said that the "Ghajini" director wanted her to look as realistic as possible, so be it her co-star Akshay or Vijender, who will soon make his acting debut with Akshay's production "Fugly", all forces got together to help her get into the skin of the character.
"He (Murugadoss) didn't want me to look girly or stylised or fake. Akshay showed me a little bit about boxing and made me meet boxer Vijender Singh who told me about the body language of a boxer and that helped in making it more convincing on the screen," said Sonakshi.
While the men made sure that she got the boxing moves right, the women helped her to achieve the sporty look.
"The sporty look was styled by Sakshi Mehra, who is my stylist. Rest of the film has been done by Ami Patel," she said.
While she is yet to get an offer that would let her step into shoes of a sportsperson, she is thrilled about being chosen for the role in "Holiday…".
"Akshay has worked with me before and he knew I am into sports. We've played sports on many of our film sets. He knew that I would be capable of pulling off the character and would be able to do what the role requires me to do physically," said the actress, who acted with the 46-year-old in movies like "Rowdy Rathore" and "Joker".
Produced by Vipul Shah and presented by Reliance Entertainment, "Holiday" will hit theatres June 6.
