Bipasha Basu is one of Bollywood’s most beautiful stars and in her new film Race; her character uses that beauty to get what she wants. The film is set to release on March 21st and recently she talked about Race, about working with actors and actresses and many other filmi things. Here are some highlights from that interview.
About Race she said, “Actually the film is about the race between two brothers who are competing against each other. They face lot of problems. The screenplay of this film is so beautifully tricked that till the end, no one can understand what all the characters need. There is a murder in the middle of the film where Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy are introduced as detectives to interrogate the murder.”
Her role is somewhat of a negative one; “I am playing a model who believes that she can play with any character just because of her beauty. She loves one of those brothers, but circumstances make her fall with the other brother.”
Race has an ensemble cast and Bipasha says it is actually easier to work with heroines than heroes: “Heroes create more problems than heroines. It’s actually our problem that we always support heroes. We always try to find out problems with ladies even if the problem is with guys. I am proud that I am not like others who defame their own strata. I always like to support women. As far as Katrina and Sameera are concerned, you wont believe that we go together everywhere.”
Adding, “Let me tell you that my race is not against the heroines, but the heroes. Audience has been praising my characters in all my multi-starrer films even if I have had very little screen presence. I always try to act at my level best. And I am happy that all my co-stars, including heroes, also work very hard. Until and unless all the characters in a film are portrayed equally good, the film will never work.”
She has worked with directors Abbas Mustan before, in fact for her debut film Ajanbi, and she says they are still the same and yet better too, “They still love me the same as they used to when I was new in the industry. They treat me as a child as because I started my career with them. They love me not because of my being a good actress, but because I am a good human being. As far as their changes are concerned, I would like to say that they are now much improved than ever before. They are still like teachers of old acting school. At the same time the subjects they dealt with are really praiseworthy. I think they are the best thriller directors in India.”
About Ajanbi and the fact that it was a negative role she said, “People thought I had gone crazy as I took the negative character in Ajanbi. That time I was really bored with my modeling and wanted a change. Ajanbi offered me the character which was considered as really bold in Bollywood. People think that taking up a negative character at the beginning of a career is like committing suicide. But I didn’t have any idea of becoming a heroine in this industry. So I took it for a change only. But looking at audience going gaga over my character and having Raaz as a hit, I gave the matter a second thought. Now I guess in real life I am not basically negative and thus I feel attracted towards those kind of characters. Accepting Jism had the same reason. I always take it as a challenge.”
Bipasha said about her performances in roles that are opposite to her true nature that, “ All the credit goes to the directors. And the actor hidden in me also deserves the same. I never wanted to become an actor. But entering the zone, I felt that there is something that drives me to do better all the time. Today I see people entering the industry with all possible training for acting. But I think actors cannot be made. We all have better actors inside and all we have to do is to get that actor out at the right time.”
“Actually I like to portray different characters and when I get the chance, I never want to let it go,” she added.
When asked about item numbers and whether we will see her in more of them she answered, “Firstly, somebody please help me understand what an item number is. There was a time when people considered looking sexy as doing something heinous. But now people like when being called sexy. In the same way, item number also was something derogative in the beginning, but today’s scenario is completely changed after getting a touch of King Khan. And I have never thought of going away from item numbers. If some good banners offer me chances to tap toes on some good music, then I don’t have any problem filming myself in it.”
Bipasha has several films in the pipeline including Bachna Ae Haseenon with Ranbir Kapoor, Mister Fraud and Pankh. She also has a Bengali film, Rituparno Ghosh’s Sab Charitra Kalponik. “Its the story of a woman who is Bengali but has no connection to Bengali literature as she is born and brought up in London. Co-incidentally, she gets married to a Bengali poet. She faces many problems, as the language is absolutely new to her. Later on her husband dies and she slowly gets interested in Bengali literature,” she revealed.
Finally about her new short hairstyle she said, “Oh, actually I get bored with my same look all the time. In my school I had many friends who had small hairs tucked under beautiful hair-bands. But I couldn’t keep my hairs short as my mother was completely against that style. And despite my wish I had to keep two ponytails. I am having fun avenging those days now and my mother cannot do anything apart from screaming at me.”
Be sure to check out Bipasha’s performance in Race when it zooms into theaters on March 21st!
