FILM INTERVIEW: MALLIKA SHERAWAT
Bollywood's Marilyn Monroe Makes Strange Bedfellows
As the final winter storm cleared away and the sun shared its rays with the lovely residents of the Pomona Valley, crossover film star Mallika Sherawat was taking a mellow walk to her trailer on the set of Love, Barack while wearing a rather heavy coat that was buttoned all the way up her upper body.
She said she was cold, despite it being noontime with the sun’s warmth just hitting its stride in filling the streets of central Pomona with a beautifully bright glare and sunshine-basking ambiance.
Perhaps she really was cold, but Mallika was probably also tired, as filming on-set at the Masonic Temple on the fringes of the Inland Empire was coming to a close in a few hours. Even worse, Mallika was in need of medical attention – prior to filming her lead role in Love, Barack, the film star known as the Bollywood Marilyn Monroe had injured her hamstring during a training session at the gym — an injury that was apparently re-aggravated on the final day of shooting.
After spending a couple hours in an impromptu physical therapy session, Mallika was finally in perfect condition to trek through the Masonic Temple, which doubled as a headquarters for John McCain’s presidential campaign, and find her way to a comfortable chair in a quaint downtown storefront across the street that served as Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters.
It was in there were Mallika shared her excitement with Buzzine about portraying Aretha Gupta in Love, Barack, a romantic-comedy film about two campaign workers – one Democrat and one Republican – finding love amidst a heated presidential election. The film is scheduled to be released later this year.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for me because Love, Barack is a romance between a Republican and a Democrat, and for the first time, an Indian actor is playing a Democrat in a movie,” Mallika excitedly told Buzzine. “I’m also playing a character that is all-American in a movie, so that was definitely very exciting for me.”
She was also excited about working with a talented group of filmmakers and actors who helped make Love, Barack the type of movie that, she believes, is perfect for families to watch over and over again after it releases.
“Getting an opportunity to work with a veteran Hollywood director in Bill Deer, having Ruby Dee as my grandmother and Loretta Divine as my mother … it is a dream,” Mallika told Buzzine with an air of excitement. “It’s a great story. It has great comedy, it has romance, (and) it has family values. This is a movie which families can watch; it brings families together. It’s a lot of fun.”
The one-time Bollywood actress also had as much fun working with her co-star, Brian J. White (Men of a Certain Age), who she said was as easy on the eyes as he was talented and instructional.
“Brian J. White is fabulous (as a co-star). He has a six-pack that we are exploiting, (but) he’s a very giving actor,” Mallika shared. “He (taught) me a lot of local American politics; I knew about the Democrat side of the story, but I was really getting to know about the Republican side of the movie (through Brian).”
Even more fabulous for Mallika is the opportunity she is seeking out as an actress. The 32-year-old thespian that pushed the envelope in Bollywood since 2002, starring in films such as Murder and Kis Kis Ki Kismat, has since ventured out beyond India’s shores and is now seeking to define herself as an international superstar.
“I’m just looking for great work and great scripts, and nowadays it seems to be coming from Hollywood and from America. That is all it is for me,” Mallika candidly announced to Buzzine as she pondered where she would like to go next with her acting career. “If tomorrow I get a script from Korea, from China or Hong Kong, or from anywhere else, I’ll do a movie there. It just so happened my last two movies, like Jennifer Lynch’s Hisss and this movie, Love, Barack, are both by American directors.”
Alas, as much fun as she is having with her Love, Barack co-stars while also seeking new production opportunities around the world, Mallika said happily that she was still touched by the simplest, most noblest of actions, adding that she truly feels at home in Hollywood.
“We had a couple of fans (college students) come in and bring Indian food for me. They brought in Gujarati Dhokla — it was so sweet,” the crossover actress jubilantly declared. “They are showing me a lot of love here.”
In a few months, Mallika hopes many of those same fans will share that same love when Love, Barack opens in theaters around the world. Until then, Mallika will be spending her post-production days staying warm and nursing her hamstring injury.
