`Guddi` inspired Sonam`s school girl act in `Raanjhnaa`

Mumbai: Actress Sonam Kapoor took inspiration from Bollywood veteran Jaya Bachchan to portray the role of a school girl in her upcoming film `Raanjhanaa`.

For Sonam, the point of reference for the character she is playing, was Jaya`s act in the 1971 hit film `Guddi`. In director Hrishikesh Mukherjee`s film, Jaya played the role of a spunky and carefree schoolgirl. In `Raanjhnaa`, Sonam plays a middle-class student from Varanasi. "The spunkiness that Jayaji`s character had in `Guddi`... We needed that. I needed an inspiration as in real life my schooling was conservative and different. So I needed a starting point... I did watch that film again. It was quite amazing to play this role," Sonam told reporters here at the promotional event of `Raanjhanaa`. "Jayaji`s performance inspired me to do better. It was perfect for the character I was going to portray," she said. In real life, Sonam did her schooling from Arya Vidya Mandir which according to her at that time was quite conservative. "We used to wear Nehru style salwar kameez. I was never able to wear a short skirt in school. We girls used to talk about other school girls wearing short uniforms. We had to tie plaits, hair band and oil our hair etc, we never looked pretty. It was not a nice look," Sonam said. "But in this film I removed all my frustration, wore short uniforms, gave attitude to boys etc", she said. Sonam is paired opposite South actor Dhanush in the romantic film, slated to hit theatres on June 28. PTI