If talented actress Wamiqa Gabbi’s sterling performances in Jubilee, Khufiya, Charlie Chopra & The Mystery of Solang Valley led us to believe that 2023 was her year, the future looks even more promising. No wonder her promise, ‘I have just started to write my story’, is backed by actuality and not illusion.
Of course, as the light-eyed beauty, the sohni kudi from City Beautiful signs up one after another prestigious project, she is as wonderstruck as we are and can’t believe all this is true. She says, “Imagine a girl sitting in Mohali with no film background, no political backing, not big money either and no godfather, dreaming this impossible dream and living it … all of this is so surreal for me.” Only instead of walking on cloud nine, she turns a tad philosophical. She says, “Once I stopped being desperate about work, things just fell into my kitty. I gave up all expectations and some invisible force began to guide me.”
Undeniably, working with all these A-list directors and big stars has been more than a ‘pinch me’ moment for her. She says, “Butterflies in my stomach have never stopped buzzing.” All of these biggies have been her ideals. Of course, her all-time crush is Hrithik Roshan and she hugely admires Kangana Ranaut.
Her reasons for signing a movie, however, are not whether it’s a big production house or superstar-driven project, but, “If the world they are creating is exciting and what am I doing in it.” Right now she is super-excited about Baby John, an actioner based on Atlee’s Theri, which releases in December. The action fantasy that Raj & DK are creating in Rakt Bramhand—The Bloody Kingdom is again something she is dying for people to discover. You bet the likes of Vishal Bhardwaj and Vikramaditya Motwane have spoilt her. “I would have been a different person had I not worked with them.”
For someone who has not been a trained actor, how does she get into the skin of a character? She answers, “Simply by understanding that characters are people like you and me.” And to all her Punjabi brethren eager to step into her shoes, her advice is, “Be so good at your craft that no one can reject you.”
If her success seems personal to her friends and family and if others too want a piece of her, she has no issues. “I can see the glow of my success in their eyes, in umpteen messages I receive from Punjab. It’s the same feeling which I had when Kapil Sharma made it, when Diljit Dosanjh creates waves. For I know how difficult it is to crack the code.”
Her biggest takeaway ever since she stepped into the entertainment industry with a bit part in Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met in 2013, and lead in Punjabi film Sixteen in 2017, has been, ‘empathy and patience’. Recently seen in Parmish Verma’s Tabaah and soon to be seen in Kikli, Punjabi cinema will always be special for her. She chuckles, “For my grandmother mostly understands films in Punjabi.” And with writer-father Govardhan Gabbi, Punjabi is very much her mother/father-tongue. In fact, she might go ahead and produce a Punjabi film. What kind? Her eyes twinkle, “See the core of my heart is drama and entertainment; I will always make an entertainer, may be laced with a message.”
In Priyadarshan’s horror.com entertainer Bhoot Bangla, is she romantically paired opposite superstar Akshay Kumar? Not at a liberty to divulge the details as yet, but yes she is okay with playing romantic interest to a hero much older to her, provided, ‘it does not look awkward or creep me out’.
As for real life romance, we wonder if there is a mystery man lurking somewhere. She smiles, “I dare him to come out.” Only she insists she is single and more than happy with her furry companions and their unconditional love! “You asked for love so he made you stand alone so you can love yourself,” she muses. Like the many shades of her characters onscreen, clearly Wamiqa is at once sparkling and thoughtful.
