"Actors like Shreyas should be promoted" - Ayesha

Courtesy: IndiaFM
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Ayesha Takia is on the list of many top filmmakers today. With half a dozen films in her kitty the actress has her hands full. Next week sees the release of her film Dor which she says, like every Nagesh Kukunoor film, is about hope.

What is Dor about?
I can't tell you really what it is about. It is about two women. One woman looking for another. It is about how Shreyas helps in searching the other woman. So that is basically the story. I can't tell you more than that. The story would be about hope, no matter what happens in your life, you have to fight for what you believe in. All Nagesh's films you will see are about hope. So is Dor.

You play a de-glam role for the first time in your career.
I don't think the glamour bit has anything to do with this film. I don't think people will give more importance to it because of the fact that the character is so strong. The fact that I had make up or no does not matter at all. It is really silly when people feel that actors who don't put make up do a better job. It's just make up that really doesn't do anything for your talent. The 'gaon ki gori' girl did not require any make up and hence it is a deglam role. If she did then I would be wearing make up but that doesn't have anything to do with how really strong the character is.

Could you tell us about your character in the film?
I play this very very orthodox background Rajput girl from Rajasthan and it was very challenging because I am this very Bombay girl. So I had to do everything and react in a way she would react to everything. And I come from a very different background. She has to deal with so many things at such a young age. So it is a girl called Meera who doesn't question life and is very very innocent, very simple from a very strict background.

Ayesha Takia How was it working with Nagesh Kukunoor who is such a talented director?
Nagesh Kukunoor is absolutely a genius. He is really extremely talented and I don't need to say this. Obviously every one knows. It is a pleasure I think for any actor to work with him and to get an opportunity to do his film because normally you learn so much about what you are doing but with him there are so many technical things you get to learn too because you are made to be so involved with everything else. He just has an extremely lovely vision because he knows what he wants in his film and it turns out exactly what he wanted it to be. So we really have grown to become good friends and I look forward to doing many more films with him.

Shreyas Talpade as a co star
Shreyas is a very simple boy, very decent, has the sweetest smile. He is even smiling in 48-50 degrees in the middle of the sand dunes. He is also a very talented actor and I think actors like him should be promoted more rather than someone who is working just for publicity. He is someone who is working for acting. So I support people like Shreyas.

How was it working with Gul Panag?
She is a very very enthusiastic girl who I am sure is really really excited about playing Zeenat because her character is very very strong as a woman character. So any girl would consider herself really really lucky to play that character and I am sure she feels the same too and I hope people like what she has done.

Any sense of competition between you and Gul?
It's not any school or a contest. It is a movie. Everybody goes in to do their best job and to play their character to the best and I think it is really stupid to ask two grown ups if they had competition. Everybody goes to the set, does their job and comes back. So we all had a great time and we worked like professionals.

Tell us about the music of Dor.
Salim-Sulaiman have done the music and it is completely rocking because it is unlike any music that I have had for a film before. I have never had music which is so soulful and something I would really listen to. I still have the CD in the cd player of my car. It is extremely beautiful even though we do not have any lip-sync songs. All the songs are playing in the background. Kesariya Baalam and Yeh Hosla are songs which are playing in the promos which are like one of my favorite songs.

Tell us about Salaam-E-Ishq.
Salaam-E-Ishqis a really great film. It's lovely. It's a multi star cast. Nikhil Advani is really good filmmaker. It is nice to work with Akshaye Khanna again. It's a good story about love. So it is really exciting to do something like that. It is completely different from Dor because it is ultra glam, complete Bombay girl. But it is a lovely film.

Ayesha TakiaHow well has De Taali shaped up?
De Taali is shaping up really much better than I was expecting it to. I thought it is a sweet little small film but it turned out to be much more than that. Every shot that we gave, every song that we are shooting, everything that we have done till now, the way we have conceptualized things has been really different from a lot of film that I have seen till date. I think it really is going to turn up to be a really cute film.

What about Fool and Final.
Fool and Final is a comedy. It is a variation from these films that I just mentioned. It has a lot of action. It has a lot of people in the film. It has many character artists in the film. For me it was good fun since Ahmed is a friend and so is Shahid Kapoor. I have worked them before.

Your future projects apart from these.
Well I am doing a film with a new director called Lovely whose film is called Kya Love Story Hai with Tusshar Kapoor and me. It is a really sweet story about love. So that is another film I will be starting soon.