'I'm not going to let my women be treated like doormats'
V S Srinivasan
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Pooja Bhatt. Click for bigger pic!
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It's an odd thing. Pooja Bhatt is not slinky, not tall, not slim, well, to be honest, not even spectacularly successful. But she's got a fan following that is more ardent and more possessive than many of the rest. Beats us.
So when the opportunity came, around the time she was completing her latest film, Dushman -- as producer not star, mind you -- we decided to try and find the secret of her allure.
Pooja, daughter of Mahesh and Kiran Bhatt, has been in Bollywood since 1989 and has decided she's had enough of running around trees. And she has learnt more in her new role as producer.
"It involves many hassles, right from the heroine's wig, to the food, the props, to just about everything... My uncle put it aptly -- production is like being on the girl's side during a marriage. Now when I go back on the sets as an actress, I don't get hyper over things going wrong. I understand the producer's problems, since I'm one too."
She's decided that if she wants to go centrestage she still had options like television and theatre. But for now she has a successful film behind and some interesting ventures ahead.
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With Kajol on the sets of Dushman. Click for bigger pic!
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Her first film as producer, Tamanna, earned positive reviews, and had every man, woman, child and eunuch rooting for her. But the shift to production was natural, considering she wasn't getting too many roles.
Her latest film as actress, Priyadarshan's Kabhi Na Kabhi with Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff, bombed at the box office. Worse, the much-hyped title number in the film had been cut from the film.
"Kabhi Na Kabhi took two years in the making. When I asked Priyan how I should portray myself, he said: 'I've not chosen you for the role to act like someone, just be yourself'."
And Pooja can shock quite a few by just being herself. Wasn't she the one who a little more demurely than Demi Moore got herself bodypainted for a photo session? And wasn't she the woman who refused to condemn incest and came in a pic mouth to mouth with pater dear? Being herself would have really been something.
But Pooja thinks otherwise. "It's one of the most difficult things to do. Kabhi Na Kabhi was an entertainer. (Priyadarshan)'s made me look very good, something my dad couldn't in the last eight years or so. When I saw the rushes, boy, was I glad! But then everything does not work the way you want it to..."
Her role in the film was brief, just a wee bit longer than the now-you-see-her-now-you-don't cameo in J P Dutta's Border.
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With Paresh Rawal in Tamanna. Click for bigger pic!
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Was she finally getting desperate for roles?
"The role in Border was brief but it was a complete role -- a very strong, clear character."
She had just two roles left, in Angaarey which has been going on for years and in Zakham, directed by her father where she plays a character based on her grandmother with Ajay Devgun playing the son.
"It's about my father's mother Shireen. I don't know whether I'll succeed in portraying my grandmother rightly. Her memories are so many..."
She's also doing a Hindi adaptation of Neil Simon's I ought to be in the pictures on stage.
"I'm doing theatre for the first time so this year, there's more to look forward to. Besides, I haven't been nervous for a long time... It's about a girl and her father. They have never seen each other, never met each other. The father, played by Dalip Tahil, is a scriptwriter in Bollywood and I land up at his doorstep with a request. I want to be a film star. Actually, I just want to know him more, be with him... It's interesting and it's directed by Ramesh Talwar."
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With director Tanuja Chandra. Click for bigger pic!
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Satyadev Dubey was to have directed the play, but things didn't quite work out. Pooja plans to take the play all over the world.
"We've begun the readings already. The thought of speaking my lines on the stage scares the hell out of me. There are no retakes! The only reassuring factor is that the appreciation is then and there. I'll know immediately whether I'm being liked or not."
Stage dealt with, we return to the movies and ask her about her latest one.
"Dushman took even less time in the making than Tamanna. I'm nervous for Tanuja Chandra (the director), because it's her first film. She's very good. The best thing about Tanuja is that she's knows what she's not. She doesn't cover up things she doesn't know. She will go to the cameraman and tell him: 'If you think this shot won't look better this way, then tell me, because I don't know about it'."
And why isn't Mahesh Bhatt in on this project?
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Click for bigger pic!
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"Now, now. I never said Mahesh Bhatt will direct all my films and that I'll be the heroine of all my productions. I'm not here to grab the honours. I think it's a sign of maturity to let another actress to play the role. It feels good to relate to an actress on a different level. When I see Kajol in the film, I don't for one bit feel envious about her. What she has done for the role, I wonder if anybody else could have.
"It wasn't really planned as an all-woman project. It was a project Tanuja and I believed in. Kajol was my first choice. I'm not proving anything by making it an all-woman film. Tomorrow I might even make a film with only men...
"Dushman is an passionate film. It rouses you. It agitates your conscience. The best part about the film is when the hero in the film tells the girl that she doesn't need him to avenge the death of her twin sister who was brutally raped and killed. He's the one who tells her she can fight the battle alone. I've made it as I believe in it. There's one thing I'm very clear about and that is I'm not going to let my women be treated like doormats. Whether they are in one scene or are from start to finish, they're going to rise above the script in my films. It's time we change the mindset in this industry."
And so, when you come away you finally know exactly why her fans root for her so.
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