FILM INTERVIEW: BIPASHA BASU

Buxom Bollywood Actress & Fitness Queen Challenges Beau to Duel

By: Ashika Sengupta

October 14, 2010

Bipasha Basu has officially challenged John Abraham to a duel. The hot Bollywood item, who have been romantically linked for years, have generally been cast in different genres on screen, with Mr. Abraham leaning toward the action-thrillers while Bips has…well, done a little bit of everything. Yet, with Bips starring opposite Ajay Devgn, Akshaye Khanna, and Paresh Rawal in the high-octane action-thriller of Priyadarshan’s Aakrosh, perhaps John Abraham’s main squeeze is ready to challenge her stud boyfriend.

Okay, Bipasha’s role in Aakrosh, which is now playing worldwide, is rather fragile and endures quite the emotional roller-coaster; the Hindi film star said she is capable of surpassing John’s intensity both on and off-screen. Accordingly, Bips is itching, just itching, to do an action film – Dhoom 2 and Race aside.

“I want to do action. I think I am too fit at this point in time, and that is a zone I have not tapped fully, and in India, we don’t have too many films where the woman gets to do action,” Bipasha told the press as she promoted Aakrosh last week. “Hopefully, somewhere I’ll see that I will be able to realize something that I want very soon. So I’m just crossing my fingers.”

Quite the fitness geek (the 31-year-old actress starred in her own fitness DVD), Bips has one of the most physically fit bodies in all of Bollywood. It helps to have a boyfriend who is equally as committed to maintaining a hard body.

“I feel girls should be (physically) strong; it’s very important. I have a boyfriend who is very strong, so I should match at least 30 percent of his strength,” Bipasha — whose fitness DVD, Bipasha Basu, Love Yourself, released a few months ago — coyly told the press. “Now my energy level is much more than his; I can beat his energy levels in 20 minutes.”

Be that as it may, Bips has allowed her career to take quite the interesting turn this year, what with the former model and glamour girl taking on issue-specific roles. Earlier this summer, Bipasha starred opposite Sanjay Dutt in Lamhaa, which delved deep into the Kashmiri struggle. This week, she is now competing against Sanjay in Aakrosh, which, despite its action-thriller label, brings honor killings to the forefront.

Bipasha — who also starred in films such as Aankhen, Jism, Raaz, No Entry, Corporate, All The Best, and Ajnabee – was rather candid about how embattled her character is in Aakrosh.

“In the film, I play Geeta, who loves (the character played by) Ajay Devgn but is not allowed to marry him because he is from a lower caste. She is married off to (the character played by) Paresh Rawal,” Bips described to the press. “In the film, I lead a very sad life. This is by far the saddest role I’ve ever done. I actually pity the life of women who go through this.”

The model-turned-actress specifically detailed the hardships and struggles of her character.

“My character in the film goes through marital abuse; she gets continuously beaten up and abused by her husband. She has no happiness left. She is not married to the man she loves. Basically, she is more or less a dead person,” she described to the press. “That’s why Geeta has no makeup; her saris are very normal. She doesn’t even do her hair properly. She is by far the most vulnerable, weak, fragile role I have ever played.”

Thankfully, Bipasha, who claims to be anything but a method actress, does not take her work home with her.

“I’m not a method actor; I don’t even take it after the ‘cut.’ I’m an instinctive actor because I learn on the job. I never wanted to be an actor when I did my first film, so for me, it is all instinctive,” she candidly told the press. “If you make me rehearse too much, I’ll be like a robot — I’ll be mechanical. So I don’t belong to the method school of acting, and I don’t understand it because, to me, they all sound mad.”

Then again, perhaps Bips will be mad if, at her self-proclaimed physical peak, she is not allowed to go head-to-head opposite her boyfriend in an action flick and prove her claims. Yet, until that day comes, Bipasha will just have to be happy with Aakrosh trying to outdo Knock Out in the battle of action films headlining Bollywood this weekend.

Aakrosh opened on October 15th and is now playing worldwide.

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