Pretty Asin from the South has two potential big Bollywood hits coming her way with two of the biggest stars – Ghajini with Aamir Khan and London Dreams with Salman Khan. Salman is being particularly attentive to the young South Indian star, making her feel at home and even helping her to find accommodation in Mumbai. He also recently gave her an exquisite glass figurine as an unexpected Onam gift.
Asin won a Filmfare Award for Best Tollywood actress for Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi and the South Best Actress Award for the Kollywood version of Ghajini. She then went on to make movies such as Varalaru, Pokkiri and Dasavatharam with Kamal Hassan. She has devoted much of this year to the making of the Bollywood version for the perfectionist Aamir.
Did Asin plan to move to Bollywood at this stage of her career? “Initially when I came into the industry I thought I’d do one film in each language and then quit and return to my studies and sit for my civil services exams,” she says, “But then modelling and films happened. I’ve been very choosy about my films and if you see my graph, I’ve done very few films compared to my colleagues – just a handful. Bollywood planned?? Not really. The Tamil Ghajini, when it came to me, I thought it was very rare for a heroine to get that sort of character. So I took it up.
It got more response than I expected in the sense that I got noticed not only in the south but also in Bollywood. There was a special screening arranged for Aamir. He wanted to see it because he had heard so much about it. One morning I got a call from him on my cell. He complimented me on my performance. The conversation lasted about 20 minutes. I was quite proud of getting a compliment from an actor of his calibre. Before he rang off he asked me do you know Hindi? Would you be interested in doing Hindi films? I said yes, when the right project comes along and then it all happened.”
