What do attractive modern girls about town do when it’s festival time and they’re all on their own – why, they go shopping of course! Bollywood babes Tanushree Dutta and Koena Mitra were both spotted in the Lokhandwala Market indulging themselves in every girl’s favourite pastime.
“I am buying the idol for Laxmi Puja, picking up mithai and also the diyas with which I decorate my house,” explained Koena, ‘I am also scouting for decorations and rangoli designs.” Tanushree seemed to be thinking along similar lines: “We have a puja at home and I fast on Laxmi Puja day. I generally buy Indian clothes and shoes and presents for my parents.”
Even though she may maintain her fast on the day, Tanushree readily admits she makes up for it during the festival period as a whole. “I buy a lot dry fruits and sweets since I need to offer them to my friends and guests at house parties. I look forward to Diwali as the diet chart simply goes out of the window. Earlier I would resist temptation but now people send chocolates, brownies and cookies home. How can you resist those when they are in front of you?” she asks.
Tanushree is clearly very fond of both her parents. She credits her mother with ensuring that she stayed on the straight-and-narrow with regard to her studies and she credits her father with giving her the confidence to achieve her life’s ambitions: “Both my parents are highly educated and since childhood they have inculcated the habit of acquiring knowledge about the world and life in general,” she says, ‘As a result, I am a well-read person with a large perspective towards life. My parents have imbibed two virtues in me in life: forgiveness and giving unconditional love. These virtues help me to have a stable personal life.”
This is an exciting period for Koena – with four films lined up, including the English-language action thriller Karna. “I’m doing two comedies, one thriller and yes, I have Karna, an English film for which I have trained in action for four months,” she says. Koena says she is very choosy about the roles she undertakes: “If you look at the kind of work I have done, you will see that I have tried to work for big banners and films with a good cast. You can’t choose a film and then don’t feel good about the outcome,” she explains.
