Jiah: The unheard and unpublished
I spoke to Jiah Khan on March 13, 2010 for the first (and the last) time. She was in London and as we spoke over the telephone about her role in Housefull, my perceptions of her, based on her post-Nishabd days, slowly began to change. For starters, it was her forthright comment, “I don’t roam around in hot pants in my house!” and then the vulnerable admission, “It was quite difficult for me to wear a bikini in Housefull… I freaked out during my suhaag raat song with Akshay”.
Among the things we talked about were her Chance Pe Dance fiasco (“I don’t look back with any negativity”) and some international assignments she expected to be a part of soon. Unfortunately, fate had other plans and the things we spoke about simply remained in my “drafts” folder.
Maybe her words were destined to be heard after she had left this earth — here are excerpts from the interview that (almost) never was.
On Travel: I am seeing a high in my career. I am currently in London and then travelling to Los Angeles for four days. After that, I will be heading for Jamaica.
Charity work: I am doing a lot of stuff when it comes to charity. There are plans to record a song with a major international artiste in order to collect relief funds for the Haiti earthquake victims. I am also aligned with UNICEF.
Films: I have three film offers currently, none of which are from Bollywood. One is for charity and has backing from Amnesty International. Another is in conjunction with WWF. Then there is also a film based on the life of a Formula One driver. There is a fourth movie which should be formalised soon. All these films are serious cinema, the kind I want to do.
None of the projects took off... Housefull was a major hit, but Jiah never had another B’wood role. When I next heard about her, it was at 1.30 am on June 3. Jiah has moved on, and only these words remain.
Post new comment