Would like to do a role similar to Alia's in Highway: Ileana D'Cruz

New Delhi: Actress Ileana D’Cruz, who will be seen romancing Saif Ali Khan in ‘Happy Ending’, says she would not mind going without makeup to do a performance-oriented role.

The 27-year-old ‘Main Tera Hero’ star says she was mighty impressed with Alia Bhatt in Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Highway’ and wants to do a similar character which provides her with ample scope to showcase her talent.

“Alia did a fantastic job in ‘Highway’. I would like to do something like that where there is no need for makeup and it does not matter how I look; a role where the sole focus is on my performance,” Ileana told PTI in an interview.

The actress, who made her Bollywood debut with Ranbir Kapoor-starrer ‘Barfi!’, says she consciously tries to show her versatility with her choice of films. Her second film ‘Mai Tera Hero’ was an out-and-out comedy and her upcoming movie opposite Saif Ali Khan ‘Happy Ending’ is a romantic-comedy.

“I want my body of work to be versatile. ‘Main Tera Hero’ was this exaggerated, loud comedy but ‘Happy Ending’ is much subdued with a different concept. The characters I played in both the films are poles apart from each other. In ‘Happy Ending’, I play a sassy girl, who actually thinks she is a guy in head.

I have not done a role like that before,” she said. Ileana initially thought ‘Happy Ending’ would be a cakewalk for her as she had already done a comedy but she found that it was not always easy to come up with perfect dead-pan expressions.

“There is a thin line between giving dead-pan expressions and coming out as cold on screen, I had to maintain that. My character is of a girl who does not believe in love, though she writes love stories. I thought it would be easy as I had done ‘Main Tera Hero’ but subtle comedy is much more difficult,” Ileana added.

PTI