Exclusive Interview with Mallika Sherawat

“AS AN ACTRESS I HAVE LAGGED BEHIND IN BOLLYWOOD BECAUSE I HAVE REFUSED TO COMPROMISE”, MALLIKA SHERAWAT confesses to JYOTHI VENKATESH

It was worth trekking all the way from aamchi Mumbai to art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai’s magnanimous Studios at Karjat where among others a mega historical film like Jodhaa Akbar was shot, just to watch Mallika Sherawat in action as she was shooting for the film Naagmati.

The film Naagmati is a period horror thriller being produced by V.Palanivel from Vaithiyanathan Film Gardens which had earlier produced successful Tamil films like 6’2”, Vathiyar and last but not the least Oram Po and directed by Tamil director V.C. Vaidivudaiyan.

Before I could catch Mallika Sherawat who was giving sound bytes to the TV crew which had come all the way from Mumbai on the invitation of the PR person Arati Salgaonkar, the director Vadivudaiyan says, “My film Naagmati is a period horror thriller in which Mallika Sherawat is playing a pivotal role that she has never played before.

In fact she is essaying a double role for the first time in her career as a royal queen as well as the princess and the film is being shot in Hindi and Tamil but will be dubbed also in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

The queen Naagmati is trying to save her kingdom using violence and horror as her weapons.

Whether she will be able to save her kingdom in the end forms the crux of the plot of the film, which will be shot extensively not only in Karjat but South Africa as well as Rajasthan.”

To prepare for her double role in Naagmati, Mallika confesses that she made it a point to see films like Seeta Aur Geeta in which Hema Malini had essayed a double role.

“The roles that I play in Naagmati are extremely challenging. It will be very tough but I think it has a lot of plus as well as minus points.

It is good to have responsibilities on your shoulders when you play a leading lady in a film like Naagmati.

The queen’s dreams are different from that of the princess, who is her daughter. The queen wants to protect the princess all the time and there are a lot of emotional clashes between the mother as well as the daughter.

Mallika continues. “What sort of challenges will have to face as an actress, I will be able to tell only after I start shooting for the film.

I am extremely nervous as well a terribly excited as I am doing a double role for the first time in my career as an actress ever since I had made my debut with Khwaaish.

I am very happy that slowly and steadily the tide is turning and female actor are also now getting good roles like the ones that I am doing in Naagmati which are at least being written for female actors now.

Earlier they were written only for the male actors, when I was working in films like Murder. I am glad that times are now changing.”

Mallika, known for her controversial statements like “Men talk to my breasts”, has not changed at all not mellowed over the years that I have spoken to her.

“I have lost out on so many meaty roles in my career only because I was not at all ready to compromise.

I have lagged behind in Bollywood also because of the industry politics. If only you are ready to compromise on your principles, you will be able to zoom far ahead in your career in the film industry,” says Mallika.

Though Mallika says she is extremely happy that this film which is being made in five Indian languages will enable her to reach a lot more of her fans all over the country, she also admits that there is a lot of happiness as well as pressure even while she is getting a wider audience through these films for which she has to learn various Indian languages including Tamil, which she admits she tried to learn when she was earlier working with veterans like Mani Ratnam in his Tamil film Guru as well as Kamal haasan in his Tamil film Dasavatharam. Kamal Haasan is one actor-director who I’d call a genius as well as magician.”

Besides the fact that she did not at all compromise on her principles, Mallika says that yet another reason why she has lagged behind in Bollywood is that she has always been frank as well as bold enough to proclaim what she feels is right without being scared of the repercussions.”

To some extent I have learnt some valuable lessons and I no longer brash when I talk.

In the good old days when I had made my debut in Bollywood, there was absolutely no filter in my mind. Thodi akkal, thoda diplomacy ab mujh mein aa gayi hai over the years”.

When Mallika came into the film industry, filmmakers did not know what to do with her, what kind of role she should be offered because she has always been a strong, opinionated actress with no inhibitions of ‘kissing on screen’ and always comfortable in her own skin.

Mallika says she is happy with the tremendous response that she is getting for her performance in the web series Naqaab which streamed on MX Players recently.

“I am glad that I was fortunately enough to be part of several path breaking films as an actor, whether it was Murder or Khwaaish.

Today I am happy that times have changed and there are young and new writers raring to write wonderful woman oriented plots for actresses. Today undoubtedly it is the era of the web series of all kinds of genres.

It is good for the industry because censorship is not there but then it has also automatically made us all more responsible than ever before as to what kind of content we have to dish out.

In any case, I do not think that for the sake of titillation, we have scenes in the web series and also we are not school kids that we need censorship today.”

Talking about her role as producer Zohra Mehra in the web series Naqaab, which is whispered to have been modeled on Ekta Kapoor, femme fatale Mallika Sherawat says that hers was a very complex role in the series.

“When I decide to do a role, the last thing that I am bothered is log kya kahenge? I accepted the role in Naqaab blindfolded because I knew I did not have anything t lose in the bargain as an actress. I feel that not taking a risk is by itself a bigger risk for an actress.”

Is she averse to a biopic being made on her life and times in Bollywood? I ask her. At comes the reply, I do not think anyone has the guts to make an explosive biopic on me because today the filmmakers are not at all bold enough to show the kind of reality that women go through in places like Haryana from where I come from.”

Mallika signs off by stating that though there is a language barrier when she is acting in films in languages other than Hindi, she is able to manage.

“I like working in Naagmati because the director is sweet though he does not understand a word of Hindi.

Also it is such a long period of time after I was part of a film like Hiss and after Hiss, I have not done any film of the same genre”.

As a parting shot, I ask Mallika what exactly does she think of her journey in filmdom as an actress in the last 18 years and she replies.

“I am glad that in my career, a vast majority of the films I have done have been good.

I am happy with my journey as I am economically very sound in the film industry today and have interacted with the likes of Derek Obama as well as Jackie Chan.

I am educated and have attended a lot of International film festivals. What more could a young girl like me want”?

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