All in a day’s work

Goldy Notay talks about piling on the pounds, sharing her first on-screen kiss and getting emotional about her role in It’s A Wonderful Afterlife

British-Asian actress Goldy Notay’s debut in Bollywood was hardly memorable. She shared screen space as a journalist with Salman Khan for a short time in London Dreams. But now she is in the news for all the right reasons.

Goldy is seen as Shabana Azmi’s daughter in the just-released Gurinder Chadha’s It’s A Wonderful Afterlife. She will also make a cameo appearance as a well-to-do Middle Eastern woman in the highly-anticipated Sex And The City 2.

In It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, Goldy plays the role of Roopi, an overweight girl who is unlucky in love and is constantly coerced by her determined mother to tie the knot. She bagged the role after she invited Gurinder to see one of her plays. The director liked her performance and offered her the part.

But the role had its own set of challenges. Goldy had to pile on the pounds to look quite unlike her glamorous self. This was a daunting task for the theatre and television actress as she follows a healthy lifestyle. “I’m actually quite a carrot juice-drinking, organic food-eating, gym-loving kind of girl. So I had to change my diet. Initially, I found it difficult but later on, I got used to it,” she says.

Goldy had to look unglamorous and wear baggy clothes to suit the part. But she confesses that her co-stars’ constant jibes in the film affected her emotionally. “In the movie, people make a lot of unfavourable comments about me. Though Roopi was just a character, at the end of the day it was still me who was at the receiving end. So it affected me on a personal level. There were times when I came home and cried my heart out. So I channelised all my emotions through the character.”

The actress also reveals that she is quite similar to her onscreen character. “Roopi is quite self-deprecating and has low confidence. In reality, even I can be self-deprecating at times and struggle with my confidence.” However, Goldy’s rapport with Shabana gave her the confidence to portray the role convincingly.

Another challenge for the actress was to act with a straight face and pretend that her co-stars (who play dead characters in the film) didn’t exist while shooting. “Sanjeev Bhaskar plays one of the dead characters. Like his on screen persona, he is quite funny in real life too. He was always cracking jokes. For the first few days, I would just burst out laughing but then gradually, I got used to pretending that they weren’t around,” she says.

But the greatest highlight for Goldy was working with Heroes star Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays a cop and her love interest in the film. Contrary to popular belief, she was not in awe of his good looks as she had never seen Heroes. “I didn’t know him really well. Gurinder asked us to go out a couple of times so that we could become comfortable with each other. As I got to know him, I realised that Sendhil is a very funny guy. Now he has become a dear friend,” she admits.

The duo also had some kissing scenes in the film. It was quite nerve wracking for Goldy as she had to do these scenes at Southhall, one of the most crowded areas of London. “It was my first on screen kiss. I thought there would be only a few crew members. But to our dismay, there was a huge crowd and all of them wanted to see us in a lip-lock. We had no option.”

Though Goldy is hopeful that It’s A Wonderful Afterlife is liked by everyone, right now she is excited about sharing the screen with Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex And The City 2. “I had the most amazing experience while shooting for the film at Marrakech. When I saw Sarah, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon, initially I was in awe of them. Later, I wanted to hug all four of them but had to resist the temptation. It was an honour working with these actors,” she signs off.