Delhi girls in B-town

Who’s a Delhi girl? Is she a glamorous shopaholic like Sonam in ‘Aisha’? Quiet but ambitious, like Neetu in ‘Oye Lucky’? All that and more – that’s the Delhi girl in cinema
Nikita Anand as prerna in ‘Dil, Dosti, Etc’
Prerna is a rich, ambitious and beautiful Delhi girl who wants to be a beauty queen. Says director Manish Tiwary, “Belonging to an upper-middle class family and having the time, the money and her family’s support, there are no shackles that Prerna has to break free from.” He adds that it was easier for Nikita to fit into “the character of Prerna since she is a good looking Delhi Punjabi.” Says Nikita, “Delhi people like to show off.My character was that of a rich, spoilt, college girl in Delhi, and she has no qualms about flaunting her money and her status. Delhiites like to dress up. Even if they’re going out, they’d like to dress up.” Adds Nikita, “There are 2-3 particular looks among DU girls. One set of girls always wear kurtas and jeans. Another set is the rich, who wear branded stuff. The black-eyeliner-and-soft-brown-lipstick look is set in the North. Manish stuck to what actually happens in DU.”
Neetu Chandra as sonal in ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’
Dibakar Banerjee, the director of OLLO, has earlier said that Sonal’s character in the film is that of a girl who walks with her books held to her chest as a breast covering technique, like girls in Delhi sometimes do. “The character of Sonal is of a quiet college going girl who probably lives somewhere in West Delhi. Or at least, she puts on a show of demureness, hence that carrying college books to hide her breasts. But under all that demureness and quietness – which you need to project in a slightly chauvinistic environment – is a smouldering heap of ambition and unfulfilled aspiration. Which is why she decides to elope with a known thief like Lucky, who’s saying he’s a thief.” Neetu says that when she was shooting for OLLO in Delhi, she “felt half Punjabi, I felt like I was based in Delhi. Since I am from the North, it was easy to speak and act like someone from the place.” What does she think Delhi girls are like? “Delhi girls do a lot of bakbak. They’re pretty, intelligent, have a lot of depth and are very hardworking. Aur mastikhor bhi bahut zyada hoti hain.”
Sonam as bittu in ‘Delhi-6’ and as aisha in ‘Aisha’
In “Aisha”, director Rajshree Ojha wanted Sonam, who’s played a Chandni Chowk girl earlier in “Delhi-6”, to play “a Delhi girl who’s just like the city – classic, yet modern. Aisha, the Delhi girl, is fascinated by clothes and jewellery etc. But in her head, she still has that saadgi. She’s trying to hold on to old world values and be the perfect daughter and daughter-in-law, and I actually feel a lot of them are very traditional. The fight between the traditional and the modern – where do I belong – is where I felt Delhi was perfect.”
About her two various kinds of Delhi girl roles, Sonam says, “Bittu was an ordinary Chandni Chowk girl from an ordinary family who uses the Metro, goes to college, wears silver jewellery and shops at flea markets. Aisha is from New Delhi, lives near Aurangzeb Road, owns a farmhouse in Chattarpur and likes to wear her mom’s pearls and carry vintage bags. She’s classy, sophisticated and spoilt.”
Anushka Sharma as shruti in “Band Baaja Baaraat”
Director Maneesh Sharma, a Pitampura guy himself, says that it was essential for Shruti to be not just a Delhi girl, but a DU girl, “mainly because she is a very ambitious girl and comes from a middle class family. She doesn’t have resources, but is enterprising. The line ‘Main toh Janakpuri ki behenji hoon’ shows the pride in where she comes from. Her mannerisms make her a Delhiite. She argues with the rickshawallah if he overcharges her. The moment you see Anushka, in her t-shirt and a stole, you know she’s from North Campus.” Anushka says, “We tried to keep the characters as natural as possible. Many Delhiites speak very fast and don’t finish their words, like, if they have to say, ‘Main jaa rahi hoon’, they’ll say, ‘Main jarioon.’ I had to learn to talk like that, to say ‘nai’ instead of ‘nahin’. And as for clothes, it was a lot of jackets, tees with stoles and kurtis with stoles. Once, while shooting in Delhi, I was dressed for the shot and happened to walk by a bus stop. Out of the six girls who were standing there, five were dressed like me”.
Kareena Kapoor in ‘3 Idiots’
Kareena plays a girl who’s studying medicine in Delhi, and she and Aamir Khan have shot in Connaught Place for the film.
This Delhi look:
Kurti from Janpath or Sarojini Nagar, or any of the women’s apparel chains
Stole from Janpath or Sarojini Nagar
Big purse, almost a bag, but not a sling bag
Straightened hair, left open
Kajal under the eyes and eyeliner for the eyelid
Soft brown/cappuccino lipstick
Spectacles with a thick plastic frame
Deepika Padukone in ‘Love Aaj Kal’
Deepika plays a girl who moves to Delhi from abroad to fulfill her dream of working as a restorer of monuments.
This Delhi look:
Kurti with puffed full sleeves
Cotton slacks in solid, dark colours
Flat open-toed sandals with a buckle at the ankle
Hair blow dried to give it volume, left open
Big colourful shoulder bag
Silver/metal earrings from Janpath or GK
Lots of wooden or metal bangles on one wrist
Follow us on Twitter for more stories