Being Bipasha Basu: Sultry siren

The only time you can meet Bipasha Basu at a trendy nightspot is during the day. In the past decade, this model-turned-actress has helped popular imagination captive with her matter-of-fact sex appeal. But her film releases clearly show that she wants more.

Anuradha SenGupta: You have just got a completely new and funky look. Is that because of a new role in some film or is it because an actor needs to feel fresh, partly because it’s his job to work on his looks?

Bipasha Basu: I think that definitely is the main point. You can’t make every single character look like Bipasha Basu, the way she looks.

Every time you have one character placed in front of you, you have to put a little bit of a thought process in deciding the way that the character is meant to look.

We as actors like to live in safe zones. Like when you are told ‘straight hair suits you,’ you stick to it for decades. Or if someone says that light make-up suits you, you stick to it. When a particular kind of outfit looks flattering, you say, "I am going to wear only this."

Every time you do a film, you understand a little bit more about yourself as an actor. I think you have to keep the actor in you a little happier than yourself.

Anuradha SenGupta: In Bollywood, even when you know it best as to what might look good on you, you are made to wear clothes according to other’s views. In films, sometimes you do not even know what you might end up looking like.

Bipasha Basu: Being a model, I knew what fashion was. But looking at some of the outfits that I wore in my first film Ajnabee, I sometimes say "Oh my god! What am I wearing? What is kind of make-up was I wearing in that film?"

I was asked to wear a dark-coloured lipstick, which does not suits me at all. Now when I look back, I realise all these things.

Anuradha SenGupta: So, you keep looking back at your work? That is like having a critically eye.

Bipasha Basu: Yes, I do that all the time.

Anuradha SenGupta: Whose word do you take, when it comes to taking the decision on what works best for you?

Bipasha Basu: Rocky S - my designer and stylist, my best friend Suzanne are some of the people who always give me the best opinion.

My mother is also very critical about my looks and my films. She tells me point blank, "this is a bad film." These are some people around me who always tell me the truth.

When I was going for a haircut, I told my boyfriend John (Abrahim) and he said, "Why don’t you check it on the computer what style is going to suit you?"

He said that I’m impulsive and I might end up getting a haircut that does not suit me. I thought about it for a second and then realised, I won’t go for any checks. I just went ahead and did it. And it’s not bad at all. I think this haircut is good enough for me.

Anuradha SenGupta: There is one thing that you don’t speak about that often – that is your eyes.

When you won a supermodel contest years ago (December 15, 1996) you were asked what is your strongest point? You looked into the camera and said, "I think my strongest point are my eyes,"

Bipasha Basu: Well, I will not say this as an answer in today’s time. I think Bipasha is more than just eyes. It is more about my confidence, personality and a sum total of the person that I am.

Anuradha SenGupta: You are consciously picking up film offers, on the basis of the range of work that is being offered to you and on the basis of the pedigree of the film maker.

Is it because you have become more confident as an actor, or is it because that’s the only way to stay ahead in this film industry?

Bipasha Basu: The choice of films has never changed for me. It’s just that with time, the scripts have become better.

The roles that are being written today are much more evolved. I have always liked to play character of a female who is not limited to just the house and the kitchen. She must move beyond it.

Anuradha SenGupta: Why do you feel so strongly about it?

Bipasha Basu: I just feel that the body of work that I leave behind me, should be of an actor who has played strong female characters.

I would always like to see myself as a strong character on-screen. It is good projection for a woman. My biggest fear is to come across looking dumb in a film. And it has happened at times.

Anuradha SenGupta: You have to mention it then, which film of yours has got you looking dumb?

Bipasha Basu: I can’t mention it. I go through my films and I feel sometimes, "Oh my god! That is so dumb."

Anuradha SenGupta: You have trained yourself to be an actor on the job itself. Which skill was the toughest for you to grasp?

Bipasha Basu: Dancing, was perhaps the toughest thing to learn. The light bit was easy but the heavy-duty dancing that is the inherent part of Bollywood, was really tough to learn.

Anuradha SenGupta: But what makes it so tough? It looks perfectly easy and entertaining when we watch it.

Bipasha Basu: When you have to dance to counts and you are not to allowed to miss even one single beat and every single ‘head turns’ has to come on that particular beat, you feel that it isn’t really that easy as it looks.

You have to remember the lyrics, you have to sing in the voice of the singer, and after all that you are not even allowed to frown.

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Anuradha SenGupta: Is there something that you are still not good at? Is there anything that you still have to work on?

Bipasha Basu: I think the comedy genre, on which I have worked briefly is something that I need to work more on. In general comedy is all about being spontaneous, perfect timing and things like that.

I am working with people who have been really good at it, and have been doing comedy for some time now. I am just learning the graph of comedy.

Anuradha SenGupta: In both Jism and Corporate, you have had meaty roles. Which one out of the two do you think has been more important to your career?

Bipasha Basu: I think at various points of time, both have been equally important. Jism remains my most favourite film. It got a lot me a lot of popularity for all the right or the wrong reasons; I don’t want to get deep into that subject.

Anuradha SenGupta: After Jism, you got several offers to do similar films, but you chose not to do them. You rather want to be working on a comedy. So you are constantly evaluating your career as an actor, isn’t it?

Bipasha Basu: Yes, I could have made a lot of money, but I turned down offers to do more films like Jism. But I feel, when I finish my phase as an actor, which could be maximum next five-years, I will have to withdraw myself.

I want to make myself happy that as an actor I attempted everything. I might fail in some places, but at least I will have the satisfaction to have attempted everything.

Anuradha SenGupta: With Jism, the sex symbol Bipasha Basu was launched on to the national consciousness.

When you are playing that kind of a role, there is very thin line between ‘being in control of your sexuality’ and ‘being exploited for your sexuality’. How do you maintain that control?

Bipasha Basu: I think I owe it to my intelligence. I would never do a film like Jism with people who lack aesthetics.

I think having a great cameraman and a great stylist helps. People should have some sensibility. I did that film because I knew my sensibility matched with all the other people in the cast and crew.

Anuradha SenGupta: You can get the control without getting exploited by working with people who have some level of sensibility and aesthetics. What else do you need to do to keep that control?

Bipasha Basu: The personal projection that you have, a personality that you are born with, if you let that come out, it helps.

Even if you are playing on the bounds of something like sexual attraction, if you project yourself intelligent and let your intelligence speak through, I think that works. Let your intelligence come out with a little bit of sensuality and it works.

Anuradha SenGupta: Does the Hindi film industry in which you work, allows that?

Bipasha Basu: Yes, I guess. I have tried it and it worked for me.

Anuradha SenGupta: Have you had to fight to do it?

Bipasha Basu: I trust people that I work with. There are no exact rules and limitations that I can cite, that if you do ‘this’ you will be perceived as ‘such’. You have to understand these things for yourself.

Anuradha SenGupta: In Corporate you play the role of this lady called Nishi Dasgupta who by the end of the film gets used and sacrificed. When you are a newcomer and don’t know people in the film industry, how do you ensure that you don’t get ‘used’?

Bipasha Basu: If you are desperate to make it ‘big’ in any industry, people would definitely take an added advantage out of you. I am not desperate to hang on to something that is not coming my way. I have always been like that.

Also, learn to say no. We agree to please people, especially the newcomers have all the reasons to please others. If you learn to stand on your own and say ‘no, it’s not going to happen this way,’ people respect you.

It’s not that you are being stubborn, or you are throwing a tantrum. It’s just that out of principle you wont take the wrong way. Maintain that right from the beginning.

Anuradha SenGupta: What are the signposts of success for you? Is it the money you charge, the filmmakers coming up to you wanting to do films with you, or is it the box office success?

Bipasha Basu: I think I am successful, and I have been successful for a very long time. That is because my goal in life is very simple.

I just want to earn, as much money as to suffices certain basic needs of my life. I do not have an extremely glamorous lifestyle though; I do have an interesting lifestyle. So I need to earn that much money to be able to support myself.

Anuradha SenGupta: What do you mean by an ‘interesting lifestyle’?

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Bipasha Basu: If I want to go for a holiday, I do have the luxury of having the best for myself. I can travel first class; I can live in good hotels. I can travel very luxuriously, live really happily.

I am quite proud of the fact that I do have a house of my own. I have two houses in Mumbai. I am very proud about these things because I was here living in a really small place as a paying-guest, not so long ago.

Anuradha SenGupta: How often do you get to meet your parents?

Bipasha Basu: My family is in Mumbai now.

Though we don’t live together, they are just 15-minutes away. That is because of the fact that I have lived alone for so long now, that my mother would find it difficult now to live with me.

People think that if you don’t live with your parents, you probably don’t love them. But I crave more for my parents despite the fact that I don’t live with them.

I make sure that I have a meal with my mother everyday. I speak to her at least two-three times in a day. But had we been living together, I know I would not have craved for her as much.

Anuradha SenGupta: It is strange but true, that some of the most beautiful women in this world are not completely confident about the way they look. Was there a point in your life when you said, "I am happy to look like myself." Have you always been happy to be yourself in the way you look?

Bipasha Basu: I have always been proud of my looks. I think I have been gifted with the way I look. I thank my parents for blessing me with good genes.

The only problem I have with my appearance is my feet. They are too big. Apart from that I have no qualms about the way I look. Though there was a time when as a model I faced a skin colour bias.

I was a dusky girl, so there was a little skin colour bias that I faced at times.

I remember somebody wanted me to endorse a fairness product. And I just said, "I don’t think I’m the right choice for it," I just had to say that much, for them to consider other options. At that time I was just trying to make a living in Mumbai and that money mattered to me.

Then I decided not to believe in these things. Why do we always preach that we have to be fair? Why matrimonial ads say ‘looking for a fair girl’? Why a quintessential Bollywood heroin has to be ‘fair and light-eyed’?

Majority of Indians are brown-skinned. All around the world people pay for a tan. We are born with a beautiful skin-colour, then why have we not accepted it till today.

When I appeared in Ajnabi, people said I look unconventional. I could never figure out that why am I being called unconventional? I look very much an Indian. Though I am a bit dark.

Now that so many years have passed, as an actor I have seen that fairer heroines are going for the ‘bronze look.’ Bronze is in now.

Anuradha SenGupta: So, you realised with time that being dusky is cool and wonderful. But when you were growing up go in Kolkata, Delhi and elsewhere, would people say things like, “this girl has beautiful eyes, but she is dark”?

Bipasha Basu: People in my dad’s side of the family are fair. All my aunts are fair. But my mother is a little dark, though she is very beautiful. She too went through the same thing. People used to tell her that she is dark. It was a regular thing.

My elder sister is fair and she used to tease me by saying that I was found in a ‘garbage dump.’ These were all jokes, but there is some seriousness attached to it. It’s a pity people think like that.

Anuradha SenGupta: When you won that supermodel contest some ten-years ago, you said that you were surprised that you had won. Your exact words were,

"Everytime they said they are not looking for just a beautiful face, but a beautiful body, I felt I don’t have that ‘beautiful body.’ I need to work on it. On the final day, I was happy to be told that I got selected because of my eyes."

We have already talked about your eyes. Do you think now you have a beautiful body?

Bipasha Basu: I have a fit body and I am trying to reach higher levels of fitness and health. In the past one-year or so, I have put in more efforts into it.

It started off with a dance number in No Entry. Then this fitness routine became a part of my life. It has made me feel healthier; not just made me look good but it proved to be a great stress buster as well. I just thought to myself, that if I continue to be fit, I would be fit in my old age too.

Anuradha SenGupta: You cited some great reasons to be in shape. But isn’t the starting point for most women is the fact that the society wants them to look that ways. Don’t we all wish that we could all lived in the 70’s when a fat Rekha or Mumtaz carried on in films perfectly with all their flab?

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Bipasha Basu: I don’t think so. I think any person who is overweight is not happy deep inside about the way he looks. The concept of beauty evolved ages ago and you can’t fight those things. I see workouts and exercises in a better light. It is just a way to remain healthy.

Anuradha SenGupta: So you support workouts and exercise but not dieting and getting paranoid about what you eat.

Bipasha Basu: Women tend to get into eating disorders due to the work pressure.

What I suggest is you need start with baby-steps. You need to enjoy the kind of exercise that you do initially.

Anuradha SenGupta:Do you think men are also under this pressure?

Bipasha Basu: Men face more pressure than women. Women voice out their problems a little more, but men internalise it.

Women are supposed to be this troublemaker because they voice everything a little more. Men are more vain.

I see it in my life as well. My boyfriend is known for his body. Even with the kind of timeframe he has, he balances out time for his fitness routine. When the entire youth is looking up to you for the body you have, you definitely can’t let that go.

Anuradha SenGupta: So, now that you are happy and well settled professionally and personally, have you got used to the fact that you live in a ‘fish bowl’?

One may just pick up the newspaper to know whether Bipasha has lost weight, has fought with her boyfriend, is seeing someone else and so on.

Bipasha Basu: Totally. Ninety-nine per cent of the time it’s been easy for me because I have conditioned myself to it. The only time when I felt let down was when some rumours started overshadowing my work.

When people should have been talking about my films, they were talking a stupid break-up. I felt that I should be talked about because of the fact that I am an actor and not because I am someone’s girlfriend.

Anuradha SenGupta: What about the alleged conversation you had with a politician?

Bipasha Basu: That definitely was a moment that I have still not figured out. I fail to understand why I was targeted? Then I just realised that anything can happen in this world.

I am a person who is so high on respect for myself that I would not let anyone tarnish my image and reputation. If you ask me what is that one weak moment in my life, then I would say that this was it. That was the only time I shed a lot of tears. I felt weak because there was nothing in my control.

Anuradha SenGupta: Bipasha, we hope that you always be in control and stay on top forever.

Bipasha Basu: Thank you.