Asin who shot to fame in Bollywood with her debut film Ghajini, is not just a lucky girl. Today this pretty girl from Kochi is looked upon as the next big thing in Bollywood.Asin was in Trivandrum as the chief guest at the Vanitha Film Award Night, along with Oscar winner Resul Pookutty.
The next day, Asin spoke to the Kerala media for the first time at the Mascot Hotel in Thiruvananthapuram. The hall was overflowing with pressmen from all leading dailies and television channels as they waited for an interview.
She patiently posed for each and every publication and made them comfortable by speaking in Malayalam. No doubt, the Ghajini girl left Kerala, leaving a deep impression in their minds. Excerpt of the press meet.
When did you decide to enter Bollywood?
It was not a calculated move. It just happened that when Aamir Khan saw me in Tamil Ghajini and he decided to repeat me in his film.
How do you rate your performance in Ghajini?
I am the worst critic of my own acting. I am never satisfied.
What does Asin mean? It means ‘pure’ or ‘without blemish’, is a confluence of Eastern and Western culture. The word ‘A’ is from Sanskrit and ‘Sin’ is Western. It symbolises the modern Indian, she explained. In fact, my name is so unique that I am yet to have come across anyone with a similar name. Thanks to my parents. They did not want me to be segregated on the basis of any caste or religion when they gave me such a unique name.
Your next film?
After completing Vipul Shah’s London Dreams with Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan I will be doing a trilingual international project titled 19 Steps directed by Bharat Bala. The film is being produced by Walt Disney and a good portion will be shot in Kerala. Kamal Haasan plays an important role in the film which also has popular Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano. It is scripted by M.T.Vasudevan Nair, and tells the tale of a Samurai warrior trying to conquer the ancient Indian martial art of Kalaripayattu.
Will you do women centric roles in future?
There is an acute shortage of women-centric scripts. Everyone knows that our industry is hero dominated.
What excites you to take up a film?
It is the script, my character in the movie, the production house, the director and finally my hero.
The grapevine has it that you have competition from Nayanthara. Please comment? I don’t compete with anyone. I am my own competitor and I strive hard to better my performance and believe that I have a long way to go.
What is your biggest strength?
My flair for learning languages has helped me a lot. When I came to Chennai the only word I knew was Aaama(yes) but soon I learned how to read, write and converse fluently and started dubbing in my own voice. I have dubbed for my Telugu films and now done sync sound for Hindi Ghajini.
You have bagged almost five prestigious award this year. What does award mean to you? Awards are like additional bonus. A sort of energizer for more inspired performances. But I consider audience acceptability as the biggest award for any actor.
Can you talk about your experience of working with Resul Pookutty? Resul and Rahman have made all Indians proud.. I have been fortunate to be associated with the best of the best in my debut film in Hindi, be it Aamir, Rahman or Resul. Normally, a boom mike is used for sync sound, but Resul wanted to experiment and he literally wired me up with lapel mikes which I had to hide under my costumes. Everything went off well, though I was a bit uncomfortable. Later when I saw the rushes I realized the trouble Resul took to get it perfectly right. He is an amazing technician.
Will you be doing another Malayalam film?
Why not? (Smiles) I will do a Malayalam film if the script and character are good
Was it a sweet revenge that you took to Malayalam film industry who never gave you a second chance after Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka that you moved on to Telugu, Tamil and Hindi and never came back to do another Malayalam film? Oh No.. It was just that, whenever a good film came my way from Malayalam, I was busy with other projects which were committed earlier. So it just never happened. I am always open to good cinema and language is not a barrier.
