In her next movie, Accident on Hill Road, Celina Jaitley plays a negative, vampy character much to the anticipated pleasure of her legions of fans. The film is based on a real-life incident that happened in the US and the consequences for the people involved.
Celina is also a strong character in real-life, an equal rights advocate who knows how to stand up for herself. Recently, when criticised by legendary socialite and Bollywood editor Shobhaa De over her appearance on a TV programme when she was defending gay rights, Celina responded in kind. “I expected much more from her,” she says, “I guess Ms De lives to put down the film industry no matter what our contribution is. She should know we actors are people of the massses and classes, we see no race and no religion. All we see is how human people can be. No matter what their sexual orientation.”
She has also locked horns with popular yoga practitioner Baba Ramdev who strangely believes that homosexuality is an illness that can be treated by traditional Indian medicine and science. He has accused Celina of not understanding Indian culture, to which she replies, “I am a 4th generation Bhartiya Fauji kid. Most of my education has been in Bhartiya Hindi medium Kendriya Vidyalaya. My education background is science and computers. I had Sanskrit as a subject until 10th grade. I have lived all my life in the interiors of India. I speak five Indian languages. I can recite 500 Sanskrit shlokas. I have been a Yoga practitioner since the age of 14.”
