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FILM INTERVIEW: BIPASHA BASU

Bollywood’s Resident Fitness Guru Returns to the Big Screen as a Free-Loving Spirit

By: Simran Mody
April 21, 2011

Shortly playing a double role in Dhoom 2, Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu ventured into some interesting roles and solid gigs in films such as Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, Race, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Pankh, Lamhaa, and Aakrosh. This weekend, Bips hopes to return to the blockbuster circuit in the Fox Star release of Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maaro Dum, the first-ever Bollywood film to be mixed in Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound.

 
Bipasha Basu on buzzine.comIn playing a hippie, Ms. Basu says Dum Maaro Dum -- which also stars Abhishek Bachchan, Prateik Babbar, and Rana Daggubati and is set in the underground drug scene -- sets itself apart from the rest of Hindi film, as it is uniquely sexy.
 
“Since the film deals with the menace of drugs, there is a lot of reality involved in it. But we have not treated Dum Maaro Dum as a dark film. It is a very cool, stylish thriller,” Ms. Basu told the Indian press. “At the end of the day, Dum Maaro Dum couldn’t be taken lightly either. The subject was pretty serious, as the characters go through a lot of destruction and transformation. The issue is pretty dark.”
 
That darkness is depicted through the tale of three interactive stories crossing the characters of Ms. Basu, Ms. Daggubati, Mr. Babbar, and Mr. Bachchan. In playing Zoe, Ms. Basu says her character represents so many things about the film’s location, which, coincidentally, is one of India’s most beautiful locales in Goa.
 
“Zoe depicts the fun element of Goa. In fact, she is the very crux of the city. She is someone who is a hippie, is fun-loving, a romantic who believes in love, and is also quite ambitious. Her life takes a turn for the worse when something goes wrong that leads to an all around transformation,” Ms. Basu told the press. “Everyone has a past. Zoe is no exception. There are two other stories from the past for Abhishek and Prateik. All of them come together to form the plot.”
 
Through it all, Ms. Basu, who also starred in her own fitness-themed DVD, is ultimately enjoying her time as one of Bollywood’s leading talents. Filming in India’s equivalent of Hawai’i, Ms. Basu said it was hard not to have a great time filming in Goa. Then again, she also told the press she is capable of having fun anywhere she is, so long as she is performing in front of the camera.
 
“Nothing can stop me from chilling out if I really wish to. A film’s genre doesn’t make any difference,” she humbly told the press. “I had fun, even during Aakrosh, even though I was getting all beaten up onscreen.”
 
Thankfully she is not getting beat up in Dum Maaro Dum. Just the same, both Ms. Basu and Twentieth Century Fox also hope Dum Maaro Dum does not get beat up at the theaters, as the film battles Disney’s Zokkomon (Anupam Kher, Darsheel Safary) for box office supremacy.
 
'Dum Maaro Dum' opens in theaters worldwide on April 22nd.