FILM INTERVIEW: NEHA DHUPIA
Actress Takes on Supporting Role in 'Bollywood Hero'
By: Heerva Macwan
A Hollywood man was in need of saving, and it took a Bollywood queen to bring out the hero in him. Here to save the day is buxom model and stunning actress Neha Dhupia. She knows what it takes to succeed in Bollywood, so it was natural for her to step in and help Chris Kattan. After all, she starred in several Bollywood blockbusters and was also a 2002 Miss India Universe beauty queen. Now Neha will appear opposite Chris Kattan and Pooja Kumar in Bollywood Hero, the three-day miniseries about to debut on Independent Film Channel (IFC).
Chris (played by Chris Kattan) is a struggling Hollywood actor who gets a chance to do a Bollywood film. He flies all the way to Mumbai to star in his new production. Insert his Bollywood heroine, Lalima Lakhani (played by Neha Dhupia).
This may be her first project in the “West,” and Neha is definitely considered a stunning beauty here, but this Neha is different from the Bollywood Neha. Welcome to Hollywood, baby!
“I’m brand new here. I have to introduce myself here and I feel like I’m starting over again,” Neha happily told Buzzine. “For others, it might be too much of a challenge, but I enjoy it. I’m not worried about who knows me and who doesn’t; no one else is judging me right now, so I can be myself. It is a great experience; I have nothing to complain about”
In her six years of working in Bollywood, she never had to audition for anything. This is the first time she had to audition, but it was not as bad as it sounds. It actually was “so much fun,” even though it was a first-ever experience for her.Yet, did her experience in Bollywood properly train her for this new experience in Hollywood? If you ask her, it really does not get better for a Bollywood star. If anything, she now knows exactly what she wants from a project, whether she has to audition or not.
“In this phase, as far as my career is concerned, you don’t want to be taking up projects for the money or if it is really big project,” Neha said in her exclusive interview with Buzzine. “I’m at the stage in my career if I’m not part of the script, would I go see this? In this case, yes. They had me at hello.”
So what made Bollywood Hero so great?
“It’s fantastically written — a great piece of writing and IFC coming to produce it,” she said.
Ah, it doesn’t get any better for Neha, does it? It does, with an all-star cast that included Kattan, Pooja Kumar, Julian Sands and Maya Randolph, as well as dance numbers staged by Longinus Fernandez, the Bollywood choreographer who did “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire.
“Our first day of the shoot, I met Chris at the rehearsal with Longinus,” Neha recalls. “We were locked up in the room rehearsing. We spent an awesome three hours. I was thinking, ‘This is so cool, and I’m so glad that I’m a part of this.’”
This was Neha’s “ah-ha” moment of doing Bollywood Hero. It was as if a light bulb went off.
“The feeling just got better and better every day at work; there was never a dull moment! Chris is fantastic. He makes the hardest thing look so easy.”
Things definitely came relatively easy to Neha too. After all, she never auditioned for a role in Bollywood, and she has the opportunity to work with some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Akshay Kumar (Singh is Kinng) and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the upcoming flick, Action Replay (a remake of Back to the Future). As she works on Action Replay, Neha has enjoyed the experience of working in Hollywood through Bollywood Hero and looks forward to doing a lot more work here.
A filmography that also includes Paapu Can’t Dance Saala and De Dhan Dhan, Neha ultimately has an “interesting mix of films” under her belt, and Bollywood Hero only adds to her diverse experience. An interesting mix of Hollywood and Bollywood, indeed.
Be sure to catch Neha as Lalima Lakhani in Bollywood Hero, which airs on International Film Channel on August 6th, 7th, and 8th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.
