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Minissha Lamba on buzzine.com

FILM INTERVIEW: MINISSHA LAMBA

She Wanted to Cover Wars, Now She Is on the Cover of 'Maxim India'

By: Neha Sarin-Malhotra
February 21, 2011

Bollywood buxom Minissha Lamba is nowhere near her thirtieth birthday yet has worked with some of the biggest names in Hindi cinema, including Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, and Shyam Benegal. On top of that, she has posed for the cover of Maxim India and already had one of her films be presented at Cannes Film Festival. Only a few years deep into her acting career, Ms. Lamba already has quite the accomplished resume. Factoring in the fact that she aspired to be a journalist covering wars and international conflicts, the Delhi-born Jatt Sikh has indeed come a long way in Bollywood. With films such as Bheja Fry 2 and Hum Tum Aur Shabana on tap for release later this year, Ms. Lamba is proving she is not going anywhere anytime soon.

 

Ms. Lamba sat down with our very own Neha Sarin-Malhotra and shared with Buzzine Bollywood perspectives on a smorgasbord of issues, including thoughts on posing for Maxim India, the potential of a career in Hollywood, and whether she can fluently speak French!
 
Neha Sarin-Malhotra: Working with Bollywood's biggest names (Salman, Ranbir, Bipasha, Deepika, Priyanka, Shyam Benegal, and Boman Irani), what have you learned about how to make it, or become a better actor, in Hindi cinema?
 
Minissha Lamba: I'm so humbled that you say I have made it. But I still think there is a lot of learning for me to do. The day my learning stops, I won't have anything more to give. Yes, it's a great honour to work with such big names. Their uniqueness makes them who they are, just like my USPs make me who I am. [Smiles]
 
NSM: We heard that you speak French fluently... 
 
ML: Not at all. But I do speak in Tamil fluently. Poles apart from French but still a very difficult language to get ahold of. I studied a bit of French in school and always managed to fail those classes!
 
NSM: What was it like posing for Maxim India and would you do it again? What are your thoughts about Maxim as a publication?
 
ML: It's a fun magazine. Everyone has posed for it, and yes, would love to do a cover with them again. Men's magazines have a different allure to them. I have never read one. My brother, of course, devours them. So being on the cover is good enough.
 
NSM: How did your father's career in hospitality influence your acting career?
 
ML: It has flamed my love for food which, in my profession, is definitely not a good idea! (At least rich food.) It's also helped me deal with being rootless at any given time--moving from place to place and changing schools. Great adaptivity to new environments and new people.
NSM: What are your thoughts on Hollywood? Would you consider working here?
 
ML: Which actor from around the world wouldn't want to work in Hollywood? If I said otherwise, that would be a big fat lie! Having said that, if you're going to ask me how I plan on going about that, it's a very tricky space right now because I'm an Indian, and therefore the roles that I will be offered will be of my racial and ethnic background. A lot of times, when I travel abroad, people think I'm Brazilian. So that's another ethnic group I can play. [Laughs]
 
NSM: What are your thoughts on the growing popularity of Bollywood in Hollywood?
 
ML: Our cinema is very different from Hollywood. It's more colourful. Almost all films have song and dance routines with fantastic visuals. You can say every film has a music video-seq track in it. I think that fascinates the West.--the image of the 'other' that is the opposite of what Hollywood is used to seeing. It's what defines us, makes us who we are.
 
NSM: You wanted to become a journalist before modeling and acting became a viable living for you?
 
ML: Yes! I was facinated (and still am) about being a conflict/war journalist, mainly because I am a very anti-war, anti-conflict kind of person. Therefore, reporting from areas that need objective representation for the people is something I'm passionate about. My parents were more than happy when acting came along. They told their friends that having me in Bollywood was a danger they were willing to deal with as opposed to me going off to some corner of the world and getting blown to bits!
 
NSM: Would you still consider being a journalist in the future? What drew you to journalism to begin with?
 
ML: Yes, I definitely would. But without any experience, I think I would be lucky if they made me the weather girl. [Smiles]
 
NSM: What was so compelling about modeling and television commercials that it made you change your career ambitions?
 
ML: Accident. Chance. Divine intervention. It's something that just happened. I got 'discovered,' so to speak, and after months of being pursued by the makers of my first film, I woke up in the middle of the night and said to myself that this is something I need to do.
 
NSM: Tell us about your role in Bheja Fry 2. How did you land the part?
 
ML: In Bheja Fry 2, I am playing Vinay Pathak's love interest. I play an executive producer with a channel. More on that when the film releases. I'm doing another film with Sagar called Hum Tum Aur Shabana, and it was during the making of this film that he offered me the movie Bheja Fry 2.
 
NSM: Working with funny men like Vinay Pathak during the shooting of the film must have been crazy. Tell us about some fun incidents you had on the sets...
 
ML: The beauty of working with someone so naturally funny is that it never feels like it's work. And luckily, in a comedy film, you gotta have fun! I'm aiming at doing more comedies. The only two ways to touch an audience's heart is to make them laugh or make them cry!