'What's wrong with the casting couch?'

On another occasion when Sherawat was accused of taking the sex route to stardom, her response was brutally frank: "I admit I used the age-old route of exploiting my sexuality to get ahead. This is the age of instant gratification. So what's wrong with that?"

Yet, this is the same woman who knows where to draw the line. For instance, she refuses to talk about her earlier persona as Reema Gill (and before that, Reema Lamba) or on her marriage to and subsequent divorce from an airline pilot.

"I have the right to some privacy," she explains. "Do you think there is any scope for a woman married at the age of 18? Next people will want to know what panties I wear. I have clawed my way to where I am today. And noting can take that away from me."

Observes her mentor, Mahesh Bhatt, who admires her sense of attention management: "She is the face of the vernaculars, the face that liftwallahs and taxiwallahs can easily identify with - the face that Bollywood has rather forgotten."

Much as Sherawat has suffered a setback with her latest film, Kis Kis Ki Kismat (with ageing yesteryear superstar Dharmendra), she is not letting the box-office response dampen her spirits. She would rather talk of her earlier hits, particularly Khwaish and Murder. She is also excited about her forthcoming English film directed by Stanley Tong in which she plays Jackie Chan's love interest.

"I stand for the sexy Indian woman of today who knows what she wants and is not afraid to get it,"she declares.