Laapataa Ladies star Nitanshi Goel reveals how Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt & Kiara Advani helped her with emotional scenes; says, “The entire night I googled…”

Laapataa Ladies actress, Nitanshi Goel revealed that she drew inspiration from Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone for her emotional scenes in the film. Speaking at the Best Performances Female 2024 panel hosted by Zoom, alongside celebrated actresses such as Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu, and Manisha Koirala, Goel reflected on her experience of portraying the character Phool.

Nitanshi Goel reveals learning the skill to cry from Deepika Padukone

Laapataa Ladies marked Goel’s debut in a lead role, and she described the creative process behind one of her initial scenes, a deeply emotional breakdown moment.

Recalling her thoughts at the time, she said, “The first scene was the breakdown scene and that scene was initiated by me. I was like, ‘agar yeh perform nahi kiya toh haye naak kat jayegi,’ because woh scene tha nahi script meh aur woh aise likha nahi tha. Scene meh tha ki woh raat ko kho gayi hai and subhe woh uthti hai and then she looks into the mirror at herself and then she leaves. But I was like nahi, nahi, nahi Phool is very vulnerable and she has to cry at some point. I used to believe that crying used to be my strong point—if I cry in front of you, they’ll be like ‘haan, she’s a good actor.’ So I really wanted to show that colour of mine.”

Nitanshi Goel on her crying scenes

Despite her enthusiasm, Goel faced challenges in performing the pivotal moment, as it wasn’t originally planned to involve tears. Director Kiran Rao, however, assured her they could revisit the scene later if needed. “This means she was trusting me a lot and I cannot break her trust,” Goel shared. Determined to deliver, she spent the entire night researching emotional performances online. “I googled ‘Kiara Advani’s crying scenes’, ‘Deepika Padukone’s crying scenes’, ‘Alia Bhatt’s crying scenes’—how did they cry like this? I wanted the breakdown to look very amazing! Fir subhe subhe maine do teen emotional songs sune aur kaha Jai Mata Di.” Her dedication paid off, as her performance was so powerful that Rao had to intervene and ask her to stop crying.

Laapataa Ladies was directed and produced by Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan. The film was recently also marked a stepping stone as it was announced for Oscar nominations. Along with Nitanshi, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Ravi Kishan and Chhaya Kadam were also seen in the film.

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Laapataa Ladies’ Nitanshi Goel recalls crying when she lost Aamir Khan’s autograph after shooting PK song