By Radhika Bhirani
New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS) Neha Dhupia says she had to be goaded quite a bit to throw a goody bag full of condoms and contraceptive pills at a college crowd here to promote her film “Raat Gayi Baat Gayi” but realised it was a great marketing strategy that sent out a positive message.

“We had gone to the Mood Indigo festival at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Mumbai and I was asked to throw around this goody bag. I said ‘No! I’m not throwing it’,” Neha told IANS. “But my producer (Rangita Nandy) insisted that ‘You must because it’s got everything to do with the film’.

“And I was like ‘No! What are we trying to project?’ But I guess that was her way of promoting the film. We are just mediums. So I said yes to it.”

“Raat Gayi Baat Gayi”, a Percept Picture Company (PPC) project, is about a one night stand. The movie has been directed by Saurabh Shukla and also features Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey.

The producers were trying to pull off a successful marketing stunt by throwing bags full of condoms, contraceptives, Disprin pills, et al, and Neha finally did it after realising that the exercise had a message attached to it.

“There was a message in all this - that if you have a hangover or if you are having a very drunk night - you must have contraceptives, protection, or antacid pills like Disprin. Everything was there in the bag. The message was - take it and go party. The bags had everything except cash to buy the alcohol,” said the 29-year-old.

The former beauty queen says she was pleasantly surprised with the response from the young students.

“The way the students reacted to me was so beautiful. It was the first time I ever went up to the stage and sang. I sang like a rock star or at least I thought I was. They just grabbed the bags. But if at that time, even if I would have thrown the wire of the mike, they would have grabbed it. Actually, initially I was hesitant about throwing it, but I learnt how to laugh with it,” she said.

After “Raat Gayi Baat Gayi”, in which she plays a mysterious woman called Sophia, Neha is looking forward to movies like “Action Replay”, “Raftaar” and “Pappu Can’t Dance Saala”.

She, however, admits that she would like to do a romantic movie opposite Bollywood’s king of romance Shah Rukh Khan.

“I am looking forward to a nice romantic film which hasn’t come my way yet. I am hoping to get that soon. I am a big Shah Rukh fan and I would like him to be in it but then it doesn’t have to be him. It can be anybody. It’s just that Shah Rukh is magnificent,” she added.