Priya Banerjee on playing the pizza girl even when she hates pizzas

Priya Banerjee stepped into a wildly unconventional space with the surreal dark comedy, Candy and the Pizza Ggirl. Directed by Akkhil Kapur, the film unfolds over one chaotic night in Mumbai, following a pizza delivery girl caught in a spiral of bizarre, unpredictable encounters. Priya, whose turn as the edgy, unpredictable “Pizza Girl” marks a clear shift towards more daring and offbeat roles in her career.

Speaking about the film and her character, Priya says, “Well, it’s not that kind of a movie where you have to dig deep into your emotions to portray a particular character. It’s a dark, witty, eccentric and absolutely crazy plot line that shows a glimpse of this girl living alone in the city of Mumbai and how she handles her pizza craving in the middle of the night. It was more fun portraying her as I’m nothing like that in real life.”

Adding a lighter take on the role, she shares, “The irony is even though I’m playing the title character of Pizza Girl, I absolutely do not like pizza. So when the script came to me, that’s the first thing I told my director, Akhil. Also, she is quite sassy and sexy in the way she carries herself, and I’m exactly the opposite of her at home—you’ll find me in baggy boy shorts and T-shirts, being lazy and binge-watching something.”

Talking about building a character that exists in a surreal world, she explains, “As I said, I’m nothing like her in reality, so playing Pizza Girl was quite fascinating. Just the way Akhil has pictured her was so bizarre yet relatable. Akhil, the director, and Aaryan, the writer, were very specific about how they wanted her to be played—the way she spoke, sat, even rolling cigarettes, it was all very specifically directed. She also had a phobia of leaving her home, which made her even more interesting as a character to play. Honestly, I just had a lot of fun being Pizza Girl as I’d never be like that in real life.”



She also recalls one of the more demanding moments from the shoot, “I guess the climax scene for me was a little challenging, especially the blood splattering all over my face and the gore—if you’ve seen the film, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It was quite challenging in terms of the mess we created, but again, it was definitely a fun experience. And we’ve left an open ending, just in case we come back with a sequel.”