Shraddha Kapoor on Stree success: Been a while since I got congratulatory messages

After a string of unsuccessful films, actress Shraddha Kapoor has finally struck gold at the box office through Amar Kaushik’s debut feature film Stree, which also stars Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi.

During a group interaction with reporters, Kapoor confessed that she has been receiving congratulatory messages after a long time.

"I have never kept tabs on any of my film’s collections," the actress said. "I have never understood this. I don’t want to understand this.

"But it feels really nice. It has been a while [since I got] these congratulatory messages. Now it’s making me feel I should work harder; just keep at it.”

Till Sunday evening, Stree had earned almost Rs81 crore nett, as per figures shared by BoxOfficeIndia.com.

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Kapoor said she was taken aback when she heard the numbers. “Somebody said Stree is doing so well and it has become a blockbuster. I said, ‘Really? It has already?’ I feel like I am still promoting [the film]. So, I am not able to disconnect from that and come into this.”

Kapoor pointed out that she had faced failure from the moment she entered the film industry. Her debut film Teen Patti (2010), which also starred Amitabh Bachchan, R Madhavan and Ben Kingsley, flopped.

“My journey into films didn’t start on a high note," Kapoor said. "From that time I realized that hits and misses are a part of the industry.

“But it does feel really nice when people say your film has not just worked but worked very well. I feel it has not sunk in yet. It’s going to take some time to digest.”

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The actress was anticipating people’s reactions from the time she got a narration of the film. “People were enjoying and laughing through the film. They felt scared also. That’s exactly what I felt during the narration,” she added.

Kapoor had a series of flops before Stree in Rock On 2 (2016), Ok Jaanu (2017), Half Girlfriend (2017) and Haseena Parkar (2017). Asked how she deals with failure, the young actress said, "I think irrespective of whether a film does well, I would want to keep putting my 100% into what I do and keep discovering myself and doing good work."

The actress will be seen next in Shree Narayan Singh’s Batti Gul Meter Chalu where she is cast opposite Shahid Kapoor. The film is due to be released on 21 September.