{"id":33109,"date":"2010-10-23T09:37:01","date_gmt":"2010-10-23T09:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.tehelka.com\/?p=33109"},"modified":"2010-10-23T09:37:01","modified_gmt":"2010-10-23T09:37:01","slug":"i-hate-you-i-hate-you-mallika","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/i-hate-you-i-hate-you-mallika\/","title":{"rendered":"I hate you, I hate you Mallika"},"content":{"rendered":"

But who can really hate her \u2014 overheated housewife, faux Indian princess or nagin?<\/em>\u00a0Aastha Atray Banan\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>meets the multiple personality order called<\/em>\u00a0Mallika Sherawat<\/em><\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a>IT\u2019S A HOT\u00a0<\/strong>and humid day. But at Mumbai\u2019s Famous Studios, sweltering heat doesn\u2019t interfere with the important business at hand. Shouting, cajoling, promising the moon, passive aggression, suicidal despair, it\u2019s all part of the everyday logistics. Then Mallika arrives.
\nSeven hours of waiting backstage, as Mallika records an episode of Zee\u2019s\u00a0Sa Re Ga Ma Pa<\/em>, we are shepherded into her vanity van for a quick chat. She apologises quickly with the same unmistakeable mouth that once kissed its way to fame, and you are already distracted.
\nThe distraction doesn\u2019t stop at her long legs, slim waist and full bosom in a white lace dress. Her eyelids bat flirtatiously and non-stop. You believe that she is genuinely happy to see you, until you remember where you are. Then you wonder \u2014 is this how she wins people over? Despite not having a single big hit to her credit since\u00a0Murder<\/em>, except the sleeper hit\u00a0Pyaar Ke Side Effects<\/em>, Mallika just doesn\u2019t seem to disappear. She is at Cannes (though Aishwarya Rai would like to pretend she isn\u2019t). She is being hailed as the next Brigitte Bardot by\u00a0Time\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0Richard Corliss. She became the first Indian actor to have been given an honorary citizenship in Los Angeles, and now she is starring in the strange Hollywood production,\u00a0Hisss<\/em>. What is it that \u2018they\u2019 see we seem immune to?
\nMaybe they love her because she plays exotic Indian princess so beautifully, simultaneously devoid of sin and full of Mae Westisms \u2014 she recently called a python her best onscreen lover. \u201cI am the salt of the earth,\u201d she declares, and Third World salt is clearly the best kind.
\n\u201cShe is such a princess. Did you know that she didn\u2019t even know what the middle finger denoted when she first came to LA? It was hilarious,\u201d executive producer of\u00a0Hisss<\/em>, William Sees Keenan, laughs, adding, \u201cSeriously, she is a saint, a nun even. She draws the line between what is sensual and trashy quite clearly.\u201d If Keenan is to be believed, she doesn\u2019t smoke or drink and is in bed by 10 pm.
\nThere is a pause needed here. Is this the same Mallika who set India on fire with one memorable numeral \u2014 17 kisses in a film? And the same Mallika whose soundbytes make you wince (\u2018I am like Viagra to Indian men\u2019)? But a few minutes into the conversation and you realise you are in a brand new game \u2014 Mallika as the sexy nerd, too bright for Bollywood. \u201cWhat sets me apart is that I am not an actress defined by the man she dates. I am an actor who dares. Wasn\u2019t it Woody Allen who said, \u2018Not taking risks is a bigger risk?\u201d she says with a steady gaze. She does this often \u2014 spout showbusiness philosophy. \u201cI read a lot of biographies. Did you know that Bette Davis\u2019 tombstone reads, \u2018She did it the hard way\u2019? I am such a nerd.\u201d Rumours on FTII campus has it that Sherawat has Bollywood\u2019s biggest collection of world cinema, and that she is a walking film encyclopaedia.
\n\u201cWhy do people assume \u2014 just because I do the roles I do \u2014 that I\u2019m like that? I like my professional persona, but I\u2019m very different in real life. But why does that matter to anybody? I say what I say, and do what I do, because it\u2019s a part of my work persona.\u201d
\nShe shrugs away questions about her early reputation in Bollywood. \u201cThe kisses were no big deal. Wouldn\u2019t one kiss her husband? We are in the 21st century for god\u2019s sake.\u201d Or the criticism about the black dress she wore during the premiere of\u00a0Inglourious Basterds.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cBlame Dolce and Gabbana,\u201d she laughs, \u201cAnyway, the red carpet is not meant for comfort. It\u2019s meant to grab eyeballs.\u201d
\nFORGETTING REEMA<\/strong>
\nMallika quotes Bette Davis and it\u2019s clear she sees a parallel in Hollywood\u2019s favourite \u2018broad\u2019 \u2014 an outspoken firebrand. She talks a lot about fighting her conservative Haryanvi upbringing on her way to Bollywood. \u201cMy parents thought I was joking. It\u2019s still not accepted in my family, though my mother supported me,\u201d she says. There are reports her father disowned her when she decided to act, and so she took on her mother\u2019s name, and thus was born Mallika Sherawat from the ashes of Reema Lamba. She was also allegedly married once, to Jet Airways pilot Karan Singh Gill, whom she met as an air hostess. There are plenty of Reema Lamba stories from that period but she dismisses them with a single line and steely glare, \u201cI was never an air hostess.\u201d
\nIn all this rewriting, she does not erase her time as a student at DPS Mathura Road, and later Miranda House College in Delhi. She remembers it as uneventful though. \u201cI wasn\u2019t interested in boys. Didn\u2019t we just talk about me being a nerd?\u201d
\nMallika\u2019s contemporaries have a different story to tell. \u201cWe knew her as someone very popular with the boys. You couldn\u2019t ignore her. She was always there, always asking for attention. Later, when we heard her in the media with her stories about a hard childhood, we all had a good laugh,\u201d says a junior from school who insists that Mallika is 34, and not 29 as she claims to be.
\nBut Mallika Sherawat doesn\u2019t seem to care about the accusations of being spotlight-hungry at all costs. \u201cIsn\u2019t it good I can get attention so easily? I love it when people call me audacious.<\/p>\n

A few minutes into the conversation you realise you are in a brand new game \u2014 Mallika as the sexy nerd too bright for Bollywood<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t want my fans to get bored, and I want my producers to make money, and I want to be laughing all the way to the bank. So being audacious works for me.\u201d It may also be a strategy to be different in an industry full of factorymade actors. The road less travelled has kept her in the news for sure, even though Bollywood seems to be wary of casting her.
\nHimanshu Malik, Mallika\u2019s first co-star in the 17-kiss hit\u00a0Khwahish<\/em>, is a good example of the confused weathervanes Bollywood is composed of. \u201cThe brand of movies Mallika likes doing are too risqu\u00e9 and her \u2018I-am-sosexually- forward\u2019 personality makes her shelf life less,\u201d he says. Of course, for all of Malik\u2019s piousness his 15 raging minutes of fame began and ended with kissing Mallika.
\nMallika\u2019s Hollywood story doesn\u2019t look like it will end with\u00a0Hisss<\/em>. She will also be seen in\u00a0Love, Barack<\/em>, a romantic comedy set in Barack Obama\u2019s presidential campaign. Mallika plays Aretha Gupta, a devoted local Obama volunteer coordinator.
\nFilmmaker Saket Chaudhary, who cast Mallika and Rahul Bose in\u00a0Pyaar Ke Side Effects,<\/em>\u00a0tries to explain Bollywood\u2019s attitude towards her. \u201cShe has always played characters who are on the edge sexually, except in my movie. Bollywood doesn\u2019t allow her that. We can\u2019t distinguish between the real and reel persona. She was very professional, a delight to work with. She gave me no hassles, despite my being a first-time director.\u201d
\nRight now, Mallika is riding high on the Hisss wave. She is sure that the movie, which stars her opposite Irrfan Khan, and for which she has been in the news again for shedding her clothes, will be a superhit. \u201cIt\u2019s the age-old story of the spurned nagin, only with great visual effects. How can you resist that?\u201d
\nIt is difficult to not admire Mallika\u2019s chutzpah. There have been no crowds cheering her on all these years. But as her inspiration Bette Davis said, \u201cI survived because I was tougher than anybody else.\u201d Mallika has been a good student.
\naastha@tehelka.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But who can really hate her \u2014 overheated housewife, faux Indian princess or nagin? Aastha Atray Banan meets the multiple personality order called Mallika Sherawat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":33114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[5725,412,5964,5965,2874,5852,5966],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}