Juhi Chawla wants Bollywood's 'innocence', 'naach gaane' back

Bollywood veteran Juhi Chawla, who will next be seen in Shah Rukh Khan's Zero, says she misses the Indian films of yore that featured "fun and games", "naach gaane" and the like.

The Gulaab Gang star believes that her industry is losing its uniqueness by aping Hollywood.

“I’m very happy with the way our Indian films are. In fact, I think in trying to ape the west, trying to be cool, trying to be with it and modern, we are losing some of our uniqueness. I don’t see the Indian songs and dances on screen anymore or very little.

“The innocence of our films, the fun and games, the naach gaane, I loved that about our Hindi films. I really don’t want that our films should ape the west,” she said.

But she isn't all that nostalgic for the '90s. She regrets that after her well-received turn as villain in Gulaab Gang, she was ready to shed her girl-next-door image but didn't get any offers for more dramatic roles.

“After ‘Gulaab Gang’, believe me, I thought I was the best villain ever! I had such a fun time portraying that role that I would have loved to do some more of that but strangely not many people came after that to say let’s do something black like that,” she said.

Still, Chawla's got something: her upcoming project is a psychological thriller in which she is playing a “very different character from my usual happy-go-lucky persona”.