EXCLUSIVE: Esha Deol talks about sharing her birthday with Shah Rukh Khan: “We celebrated our birthday together on the sets of...”

Esha Deol began her career in 2002 with Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe. She was then seen in some interesting films and even collaborated with a director like Anurag Basu (for Kucch To Hai; 2003). Sadly, none of the films worked. Things changed a bit in 2004 once she was seen in Mani Ratnam’s Yuva. This was followed by Dhoom, her first big hit that made her a household name.During the 20th anniversary celebrations of Dhoom, Esha Deol spoke about the pre-Dhoom phase of her career exclusively with Bollywood Hungama. When asked if it was a tough time for her, she said, “You can’t say ‘My films are not working, I don’t want to do (work in films)’. If that was my attitude, I would have stopped working long back. Also, you can’t hold yourself responsible for a film as it’s not in your hands wholly and solely. There are so many factors to a film – the director, story, editing, time of the release, amount of screens you’re getting, etc. It’s a different ball game altogether. My vision and my focus were very clear that I need to keep working.”Esha Deol is all set to make a comeback in films with Main, co-starring Amit Sadh. She said, “We have completed the dubbing of the film. The post-production work is going on. It’ll come out soon.”Two weeks back, she attended the launch of Vikram Bhatt’s film Tumko Meri Kasam. It’ll be presented by Mahesh Bhatt and will also star Anupam Kher, Ishwak Singh and Adah Sharma. When asked if the film’s shooting is completed, she revealed, “No, we are shooting for it. It has Anupam Kher ji as well. It’s nice to collaborate with Vikram Bhatt after Ankahee (2006).”She added, “There’s another film down South that I am doing. It’s called Hero Heeroine and it’s a new experience for me. It stars Sree Vishnu and is produced by Prernaa Arora. That’s also an interesting film.”Esha Deol interestingly shares her birthday with superstar Shah Rukh Khan, on November 2. Has it ever happened that both of them celebrated their birthday on the same day? The actress smiled as she said, “He did a film called Dil Aashna Hai (1992). It was one of his first films and was produced by my mother (Hema Malini). That time, we celebrated his birthday and my birthday together. I was very small at that time.”Also Read: Esha Deol on working with Prerna Arora, “Prerna’s films have always had a good storyline”