Pooja Bhatt: Actors have not arrived until they become gay icons

Pooja Bhatt: I always tell my leading men that they have not arrived until they become gay icons!

Mahesh Bhatt's daughter is looking for new male and female leads for Jism 3...

Pooja Bhatt's Jism franchise gave the industry two sex symbols in Bipasha Basu and Sunny Leone. Who she picks for the third instalment is being keenly watched. However, insiders say, this time, she's on the lookout for both a male and female sex symbol.

Bhatt admits as much. "More than the female protagonist, this time it is important which man we cast in the lead. Jism eventually is as much about the male as the female gaze and I believe in giving my female audiences as much, if not more, to drool over as the men. I always tell my leading men that they have not arrived until they become gay icons," she says.

She adds, Jism 3 has to be braver and bolder than the first two parts. I am ready to break some more taboos. It's time to re-invent the franchise."

However, for the third film, Bhatt will require a girl bolder and sexier than both Bips and Sunny. "I need a combination of attitude, sensuality and vulnerability. I need a new kind of heroine. After Bipasha Basu and Sunny Leone, India now needs an even more unique fantasy figure. My father always says we need to change audiences' perceptions more than we change the actor