In fear of getting typecast, I had to do something different: Ileana D’Cruz

South actress Ileana D'Cruz, who is excited with the release of her latest starrer Phata Poster Nikhla Hero in which she stars opposite Shahid Kapoor, makes a frank admission that she did not expect that her debut Hindi film Barfi would be such a huge hit. “Forget the Rs 100 crore, I never thought that such a serious film would even cut ice with the audiences. Ranbir Kapoor and I would often joke that if the film would make Rs 75 crore, he would quit smoking,” the actress shares. At this point, Ileana also admits that she took three months before giving her nod to the Anurag Basu-directed project. “For, I was not confident that I would be able to deliver the goods. Both Ranbir and Priyanka Chopra are superb actors. As the film depended on all three of us, I was scared that if I couldn’t match up to their standards, the whole film will fall flat on its face,” she adds. When asked to why she chose the above mad cap comedy with Shahid for her next, she replied, “All said and done, Barfi set me up as a serious actor. And in order to break that image, I had to do something different. Since I have been in that zone before in my South films, it was not much of a challenge for me.” “Anurag Basu had told me that while he was very happy with my work in Barfi, the only fear that he had in mind was that I might get typecast. Justifying his point, he advised me not to sign new projects till Barfi released but wait for the audiences’ response to my role. After Barfi released, I was offered several roles in serious hard-hitting-kind of films, but as my roles in them were not important enough, I refused them outright. Here I wish to reveal that I signed for Phata Poster Nikla Hero much before Barfi released,” Ilena informs Apart from Phata Poster…, Ileana is doing Happy Ending with Saif Ali Khan and Main Tera Hero with Varun Dhawan.