14th January, 2009
She is smart, bold, does not shy away from sensuality and has no qualms about wearing barely there garments (and did we forget to mention also super hot!) Rising actress Rachna Shah gives us the inside scoop on herself and her titillating role as Kamini in her forthcoming movie Rang Rasiya.
First the obvious question..could you tell us a little bit about your role in Rang Rasiya.
I play Kamini who is Ravi Verma's muse. She comes from a lower caste and stands for a twentieth century modern woman. Ravi Verma is inspired by her beauty and her flamboyance.
And how much of yourself do you see in Kamini?
Kamini is a teaser, she will come and titillate you. I am not like that in my real life. I am ambitious and love pushing the edge. I love a challenge and want to do something different, not the usual run off the mill stuff. Kamini as a role attracted to me, she is a very modern woman and stands for woman empowerment.
Is it true that you had to put on 5 kilos for the movie?
Ya, you see Ravi Verma is a Keralite. Ketan said that he wanted a heavy ass voluptuous woman as Kamini had that kind of a look. And i was quite skinny so I told him 'Don't worry I'll put on weight for the character." I also went and sat in the sun to look tanned. I had to look as natural as possible as there was no make-up used in the movie except for one scene. And to be honest putting on weight was easy, my biggest challenge was how will she talk in two languages English and Hindi and how do I make it sound convincing.
And how comfortable were you doing the sensuous roles and wearing skimpy clothes?
You see Ketan had made it very clear right from the beginning if you are not comfortable don't sign the film, don't get in to anything half heartedly. I did not think about it. I studied the paintings of Ravi Verma. And as far as the attire was concerned, I didn't even wear any skin tights or coloured bras, I wore it just like how woman in Kerala those days use to. I was quite comfortable with what i wore. And if you are not it just shows. Why do you think that foreign actresses look good in a bikini? Some of the foreigners wear the most ridiculous bikinis and it suits them. It suits them just because they are comfortable wearing one.
Ravi Verma was quite a controversial painter, whats your take on his kind of paintings.
If an artist has to worry about a hundred things before his creation then what's the point? An artist should have the freedom of expression. You can't call anything dirty. What comes to the mind is natural. Unless of course you are talking about things like abusing a child. That is unacceptable. But there is nothing wrong when something is done between two equals.
Where will we see you next?
I'm doing Kal Kisne Dekha where I will be playing a negative role. And guess what here I had to lose nine kilos for the film! It is a regular kind of action movie. I am also coming out with a movie 'Diamond Murders' which is based on Sherlock Homes. Its a complicated film you'll have to just wait and see what it is all about.
