Dhak Dhak, which releases today, sees four ordinary women from different walks of life setting out for a bike ride and discovering themselves and the essence of sisterhood through the course of the journey. Interestingly, its actors Ratna Pathak Shah, Dia Mirza Rekhi, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanjana Sanghi rode bikes all the way from New Delhi to Khardung La to reach the shoot location.
Recently, Dia in an exclusive conversation with us revealed that Fatima had an epileptic attack during the shoot of a significant scene but got back to her feet soon and completed it. Reacting to it, Fatima tells us, “You’ll have to fall and then get up again. I trusted the process and gave it my hundred percent. Main nahi chahti thi ki mere wajah se koi kami reh jaaye. Having tough days is a part and parcel of our job.”
However, Dhak Dhak made for a very important experience, according to her. She admits to not having a bearing on the commercial standing of her films but feels fortunate to have found a producer like Taapsee Pannu who decided to make Dhak Dhak with her. “It’s very difficult to find people who trust actors who aren’t stars. We’re good actors but we aren’t A-listers and that’s the reality. Making a film with an A-lister is a different ballgame because it helps you garner attention,” shares the actor, who will next be seen in Sam Bahadur.
Fatima further continues, “But for a producer and a director to trust their instinct and believe and have faith in us that we’ll pull it off is commendable. That gave an actor like me some hope that films like this can be made with me as well.”
While the rest of the cast learnt riding a motorbike prior to the film shoot, Fatima has been a bike rider all her life and learnt it ‘very early’ on thanks to her dad. And while practising it helped her channel her love for the outdoor activity, it didn’t prove to be a completely pleasant experience.
She reveals that she was eve-teased and made to feel uncomfortable by many men during her rides. “I realised women bikers face a lot of problems because when I would ride, I would see people catcalling me and unnecessarily racing with me. I don’t know how that would satisfy their egos. I don’t know what bothered them so much. They would race with me to show me that they can ride faster than me. I would just let them take over,” she recalls.
She also tells us that she was stalked by a stranger one day during her practice lessons. “I remember that there was a guy who was following me and my trainer. We asked him, ‘Uncle, aap kahaan ja rahe ho?’ We thought he would come home with us. Men feel their masculinity gets threatened when they see a woman riding a bike,” states Fatima.
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