Paloma on Comparisons With Mother Poonam Dhillon: 'I'm Aware of It But...' | Exclusive

Poonam Dhillon’s daughter Paloma will make her acting debut along with Sunny Deol’s son Rajveer in ‘Dono’. The romantic drama is directed by Avnish Barjatya, son of Sooraj Barjatya, and will be released in theaters on October 5.

Even before the film was released, comparisons had already begun for the newcomer with her mother. But Paloma is pretty positive and takes all of it in her stride, “I am aware people will compare me to my mother but every individual is different. I believe we have our journeys. I hope to create my own identity and I guess it goes the same with my co-star Rajveer. We want to prove ourselves and make our parents proud. They’re proud that we got this opportunity on our merit.”

The actor says that growing up she didn’t ape her mother in front of the mirror, “I didn’t want to be an actor when I was a kid. For the longest time, I didn’t know that my mother was an actor. So for me, the love for acting started in college when I did act for the first time. I started watching my mom’s films after a certain age. But yes I would dance to a few popular songs just for fun.”

Paloma says that bagging her first film was a long process and she didn’t get the film because her mother is an actor, “We did multiple rounds of auditions. Avnish was very sure about his characters and so he wanted to be certain of who they were casting as a Rajshri Productions heroine. I remember sending him a bunch of my auditions, photos, and dance videos in various avatars. After a few rounds, I got shortlisted, and then both Rajveer and I came together for an audition. Avnish took his time to select his lead pair as it is a big decision to direct a debut film with two newcomers.”

The debutante adds that she is grateful that her parents accepted her decision to become an actor. “The fact that my parents have always supported all of my choices in life— whether they are hobbies or other pursuits—means that when I decided to tell them about how seriously I was taking this profession, I don’t think they expected it but they were very happy with my decision. However, they did express how challenging this industry is to work in and what goes into its craft.”