Wamiqa Gabbi on the opposite reactions to Baby John and Bhool Chuk Maaf: You never know how would any film work

Hindustan Times

5 hours ago

In the last six months, Wamiqa Gabbi has had a roller coaster of experience in her film journey. The actor had her first big commercial release in December 2024 with the Varun Dhawan-starrer Baby John. A big-budgeted anticipated release, the film, however, failed at the box office. Whereas she recently came with a small film Bhool Chuk Maaf, and it turned out to be a commercial success.
Ask her how the two different experiences shaped her perspective towards work, and Wamiqa Gabbi says, 'I feel every film has its own journey. You never know how would any film work, and if it will resonate with the audience. A film like Tamasha (2015) got recognition after so many years. But a film like Bhool Chuk Maaf working gives you a lot of faith and the confidence to say yes to more original storytelling and put faith in directors like Karan Sharma who are making their first films. You understand that you really need to choose your characters, basis how you feel about the script.'
But Baby John was her first big outing on the big screen and she must have had big hopes from it. How did she pull herself up after it failed to connect with the audiences? 'More than any hopes, for me it was about the opportunity to work with Varun, Atlee sir and Murad Khetani and be a part of their world. That in itself was a very big thing for me. I can obviously choose to look at all the negatives like what happened with the film and what didn't. But if the film only wouldn't have happened, what would have I done and where would I have been?' she questions.
The actor adds, 'It's up to you what you want to focus on—what didn't happen or what did. I didn't come empty handed from that film. I still have the experience of working with these people, being friends with them and learning from them. So, how can I ignore that? All that did something to me and shaped me in some or the other way.'
Not just that, Wamiqa insists that the team up also changed the industry's perception towards her: 'The fact that I was working with Atlee sir helped to bring in that change. For him and Murad sir to have that faith, and even for Varun to be okay with having me on board, that takes guts because they are at that powerful position where they can say no. But they put their faith into a newcomer, as they want to see me grow. That kind of changed things for me where people started having faith in me to see me in a commercial film. Even Dinesh Vijan sir, the kind of faith that he's put in me for a film like Bhool Chuk Maaf, I was very happy that I got this opportunity,' she ends.