Two back-to-back hits - "Dhoom" and "Kaal" - have brought the glow of success to Esha Deol's face.
And now a sensitive performance in "Main Aisa Hi Hoon" marks the arrival of an actress worth watching.
Says Esha happily: "I really worked hard on my role, look and performance in 'Main Aisa Hi Hoon'. I know I had very little to do. But I wanted to make the role memorable.
"I wanted this capricious character to look and behave like a lost neglected child in search of something that she doesn't know the existence of. I borrowed some of Sandra Bullock's performance in '28 Days'. She played a character who went for drug rehabilitation.
"I borrowed her mannerisms. As for the styling and clothes, it was very 'today', very young and trendy. I'm glad it worked. When you get a role where you get a chance to do something with your character you go for it. But a lot of times I'm offered roles that give me nothing to do.
"I've decided no 'faltu' (commonplace) roles for me. I'd rather stay home than do something I don't believe in."
She admits "Dhoom" turned her fortunes around. It also transformed her physical appearance.
"The character I played in 'Dhoom' needed to look a certain way. And somewhere Aditya Chopra felt I needed to change my image in the industry, that my looks needed a revamp. He could visualize my looking the way I did in 'Dhoom'. I trusted his vision completely."
Esha admits looking hot on screen wasn't easy.
"I come from a very conservative background. Both my dad and mom are extremely conservative. At home I've never worn those 'Dhoom' kind of clothes, except shorts to play football.
"But for 'Dhoom' I had to change my entire wardrobe. I was given ample time to get used to the new me. Now I'm very comfortable with my new svelte look."
But that doesn't mean Esha will do a "Dhoom" for no rhyme or reason.
"I'm a very blunt person. If I'm asked to show skin unnecessarily I'll put my foot down. No one can make me do what I don't want to. There was an item song in 'Kaal'. But not part of the plot."
She admits she was skimpily dressed in "Kaal".
"What to do? Audiences ko kuch to dena hai, tigers ke alava (audiences have to be given something else, apart from tigers)," she giggles.
Right now things seem to be going great guns for Esha.
She has just signed Meghna Gulzar's new film. "And it feels great. Because my mom did so many wonderful films with Meghna's dad Gulzar Saab. It's a very nice story about a couple. Meghna saw me in 'Yuva' and felt I'd suit the role."
Esha's face lights up when she speaks of Gulzar.
"I had gone to meet him before 'Dhoom'. He got me a teacher to coach me in Urdu.... In a way Meghna and I are both sailing in the same boat, being compared with our moms."
Now Esha is confident enough to face the camera with her mother.
"I'm glad I'm no longer seen as just another star-kid. I'm finally getting exciting roles. Earlier I was getting rather shabby roles. Some of the films I did were done for a lark. Yeah, I guess I'm happy now. I don't mind sitting at home. But I won't choose wrongly."
She still takes advice from her mom. She's also doing an English language film directed by Apoorva Asrani where she's playing a Punjabi girl in London.
"It's going to start in July and will be marketed worldwide. Now I want to be in films where I make a difference to the plot. I don't want to be in a position where I've to groan about going to work. The quality of work is encouraging.
"It's good to have people appreciating what I'm doing. Even when they weren't doing so it was fun. I felt I had to prove myself. I still do."
In "Yuva" Esha was the only actor common to both the Tamil and Hindi versions.
"When I was offered 'Yuva', the director's wife spoke to me in Tamil on the phone. I had no clue I was being tested. We speak Tamil at home. Both me and my sister speak it fluently. 'Yuva' was fun. I liked doing the naughty things that my character had to do."
Esha is taking it easy. "I'm going to be lambasted for some of my forthcoming films. But I'm having fun. It's fun being a brat."
At the moment Esha is single and fancy-free. "But my mom keeps saying I should go out more, find someone for myself. Isn't she the coolest?"
Three consecutive hits for Esha Deol – fourth one is a Hema chosen Groom
Three fast lane perfect hit for Esha Deol. Two back-to-back hits - "Dhoom" and "Kaal" - have brought the glow of success to Esha Deol's face.
And now a third one in "Main Aisa Hi Hoon" marks Esha as the new Bollywood bombshell.
Well you must be thinking what’s next. You will get surprised now! Mother Hema Malini is looking for that perfect groom for Esha. Esha will accept Hema’s choice.
Esha Deol has been tagged often as the ‘girl with attitude,’ but we’re telling you, the truth is far from that. Even the girl herself wonders where such tags come from, considering she’s quite a friendly person by nature. And contrary to what people assume, she has a host of actress friends in the industry. ”I don’t see why people make such a big issue about actresses trying to rip apart each other. That doesn’t happen, you know. Lara Dutta and I got along really well while shooting for ‘Kaal’; Celina and I were like a house on fire during the making of No Entry. We’re as cool as the boys,” she explains. Yeah, we think these girls should actually be wearing the tag, ‘Kya Kool Hai Hum’!
Esha Deol wants much more than love - she needs....
Esha Deol's first taste of love actually made her cry. She expressed strange antipathy to love. Souces say she really meant love is not really the right word always. Someone proposed her in her second grade and she started crying!
Does Esha really mean love is that bad? Some say Esha is in an affair after all! Can that happen without any real love? What more does she want?
Esha Deol ready to flirt and lift her skirt after Canadian shoot
It's an out-and-out fun film. All of us had a ball shooting Dus in Canada. I love to enjoy myself. That's what makes me special, I guess," Esha Deol is ready to open up, become especially outgoing and start revealing her body after the Canadian shooting.
I''''ve done a lot of serious stuff right from my first film Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche where I had played, believe it or not, a widow!" Wrong start. Esha was branded a serious actress at a time when she just wanted to have fun. But now she's determined to break free... and freak out! "I''''m shooting for not one, but three full-fledged comedies one after the other. I''''ve completed (Anees Bazmi's) No Entry, where I bubble over with a whole bunch of us, from Anil Kapoor to Salman Khan to Zayed Akhan. Then I''''ve just shot in Italy for three weeks for (David Dhawan's) Shaadi No 1. All of us - Sanjay Dutt, Sharman Joshi, Soha Ali Khan, Ayesha Takia, Fardeen and Zayed - had so much fun. It was like a picnic." Wouldn''''t Esha be lost among so many other actors in No Entry and Shaadi No 1? "Not really! If I fear getting lost I''''d never venture out on the unknown road," says the new power-packed Deol who's got another comedy, Indra Kumar's "Pyare Mohan" opposite Fardeen Khan, on the anvil.
