Soha Ali Khan has been talking about her wet role in the movie Turn Mile, a romantic tale set against the backdrop of the 2005 floods which also stars Emraan Hashmi. “It is by far the most difficult movie I have shot for,” she says, “Getting drowned in 20,000 litres of water, being swept by waves and water being thrown at you throughout is not easy. There is a lot of action, cruising, long rain shots and I had to get drenched for 14 hours a day.”
Back on dry land, she will be seen first in the action comedy 99, due for release next month. “It is slick, fast-paced and has an international look,” she explains, “We have an ensemble cast of wonderful actors, including Kunal Khemu, Boman Irani, Vinod Khanna, Mahesh Manjrekar and Cyrus Broacha.” She also appears in a segment of the portfolio movie Mumbai Cutting which includes a wide range of Bollywood stars including Vinay Pathak, Neetu Chandra, Sonali Kulkarni, Tara Sharma, Ranvir Shorey and many others.
Soha is keen to juggle careers in three domains at the same time. As well as her Hindi movies, she is also involved in two English movies – the horror thriller Six Eleven and a relationship movie focussing on that between mother and daughter, Life Goes On, in which her mother is played by her real life mother Sharmila Tagore.
In addition, Soha’s Bengali movie career continues apace. The Oxford University and LSE-educated star will be in Rituparno Ghosh’s new movie as well as Aparna Sen’s The Jewellery Box. “People in Bengal make wonderfully progressive films,” she confides, “They work for creative satisfaction and, as an actor, it is important for me to work in Bengali films.”
