Pooja Hegde- A Big Hrithik Roshan Fan

Pooja Hegde feels no less royal than the princess she plays in Mohenjo Daro. Raghuvendra Singh meets the star of tomorrow.

- Raghuvendra Singh

Pooja Hegde is living out a fairytale. The young actor could not have dreamt of a more celebrated debut. As Hrithik Roshan’s beloved in Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro, it’s nothing short of an epic unveiling. The Miss India contestant feels blessed. “It’s been more than a decade since Deepika Padukone or Anushka Sharma had such a big launch,” she says.

She plays princess Chaani in Mohenjo Daro. But it’s a character that seems tailor made for the new-age actor. She reveals, “According to Ashu sir, I was everything that he had pictured for Chaani. His suggestion was to just be myself and not act at all.

That made my life easier.” Unlike Pooja, Chaani’s character is bound by her situations and that’s what made the role challenging. She explains, “Chaani is suppressed because there’s a prophecy about her. They call her the Navlokini, which means the chosen one. And the belief is that Chaani will usher in a new way of life in Mohenjo Daro. Everyone believes that she has magical powers. So when she steps out in public, she has to be elegant and correct. She has to be the Navlokini." She adds, "But at heart she’s childlike and just someone who wants to be nobody. She doesn’t want people to recognise her.”