Bipasha Basu’s calm demeanour belies her tone as she talks about shooting for her latest film Lamhaa, which is due to hit theatres this week. The film whose story revolves in terror-stricken Kashmir seems like quite an unlikely choice for this glam model-turned-actress. “I signed Lamhaa purely based on the director’s credibility. I’d watched Parzania, which is Rahu Dholakia’s previous film, and I loved it. So when he narrated the story of Lamhaa to me in two hours I was hooked and immediately gave my go-ahead,” she says.
She elaborates about the movie, talking about the character she plays. “I play the role of a Kashmiri girl and for me, a pukka Bengali, this was the chance of a lifetime, so I grabbed it. Azeeza is a character that Rahul has created and because of the situation in Kashmir I couldn’t go there and study the women to prepare for my role. I had to rely on research and documentation.”
Somewhere along the line the actress says that she gave Azeeza’s character the “Bipasha touch”. “She is like me, a firebrand. The truth is that sometimes you have to be a man to survive in this world and I know what that’s like, even though women are soft and vulnerable they can be equally tough and strong when the situation demands,” she says.
Incidents of terrorism have almost isolated Kashmir from the rest of the world and the actress remarks that shooting there made her value life even more. “It’s quite unfortunate when you take into account the situation in Kashmir today. Everyone there has a gun and they don’t hesitate to use it, life there is very unpredictable and in that sense, surviving everyday is a blessing. People there don’t trust outsiders easily and the first one week of our shooting was very tough even though we were staying in a CRPF protected area. When we went back for the second schedule after the elections things were much smoother,” she explains. According to her, even that doesn’t taint the beauty of the land that’s known as “paradise on earth”. “I’d been to Kashmir when I was five and after that I went only now, so much has changed, but the place still remains pristine and beautiful. There is a reason why it’s called jannat. Some day I would like to go there as a tourist and savour it’s natural beauty,” she adds hopefully.
Sanjay Dutt and Kunal Kapoor, her co-stars in Lamhaa come from very different acting backgrounds, so what was it like working with these versatile actors. “Sanju and I share a fantastic relationship because we’ve worked together before. When he realised that I was petrified in Kashmir he promised me that he would be my bodyguard and he lived up to it,” she laughs and continues, “As for Kunal, he’s a great performer. He is a method actor and puts a lot of time into research and rehearsal while I’m more spontaneous.”
Touching on the subject of Tamil movies, Bipasha states that since she’s not comfortable with the language she is not looking at Kollywood projects at the moment. “I did Sachin, but I think that was one time when greed overcame me and I don’t think it will happen again.” However, Bips admits that she has her hands full now with Aakrosh that’s directed by Priyadarshan, which also stars Ajay Devgn and Akshaye Khanna and Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maaro Dum where she’s paired opposite Tollywood heartthrob Rana Daggubati. “Rana is fluent in both Tamil and Telugu and he’s keen on learning Bangla, so we have this sort of language exchange programme going on,” she says breaking into giggles.
Movies apart, the other thing that’s keeping this Bong Bombshell busy is her fitness line BBloveyourself. “I’m passionate about fitness and about fashion and this is just a culmination of my interests. We’re planning to come out with a fall and winter collection soon and may even branch out into accessories and cosmetics. But it will all happen step by step,” she signs off.