Kunal Kapoor is history for me now

By Subhash K Jha

From Suchitra Sen to Sushmita Sen, Bengali tigresses have ruled Hindi cinema for aeons.

Maybe now it's Suchitra's grand-daughter Raima's turn.

The girl certainly has spunk. Last week she defied a family crisis to be with Aparna Sen's actors for the rehearsals..

"I lost my poor little puppy. He suddenly fell ill. And before we could figure out what it was, we lost him. Now my other two puppies are so lost without the dead one. He was only two years old. …do you think other puupies will get used to the loss?"

The entire family—Raima, sis Riya and mom Moon Moon Sen-had flown down to a hospital in Pune. "My sister is even more devastated. She saw him die in front of her eyes.

I had to drive back from Pune at 1 in the night to be in Mumbai in time for my workshop with Aparna Sen and Rahul Bose the next morning. I had to. I can't let the project down when so much trust has been placed on me."

Raima and her sister Riya stay together in Mumbai. "She's just done a Limca ad in Cape Town. We're different entities yet very similar. We look after each other. We're more friends than sisters.

But we lead very independent lives, though we do hang out together. Riya is a very strong but soft girl. People mistake her shyness for an attitude problem. But she's more emotional and caring than I am. It'd be interesting to do a film together."

That isn't all. For skydiving scene in Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd Raima refused to use a duplicate.

Recalls the actress, "A body double was ready to step in. But I had done sky-diving before, so I decided to give it a shot. About being in a sari, yes it was scary on the first day.

But I soon got a hang of it. It was a great fun….and then I also had Eklavya recently…you must have wondered why I did that small role. I can't say no to some people. But I'm learning. In recent months I've said yes only to Aparna Sen's film.

Now I'm being cautious. I'm scared of being typecast as a bit player. I have Manorama 6 Feet Under coming up. I decided to do that film only because the director Navdeep is a friend. I had done an ad with him six years ago. It's a good role. Again you'd think it's a small role."

Another small role in Mani Shankar's Mukhbiir coming up. "But that was for friends. My leading man Sammir Dattani was my first ever hero. We both did a music video together at the age of 17.

But love? Naaah, that's not on the cards right now. I was shocked when they wrote that was involved with K.K. Menon. During the shooting of Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd I said KK was hot. Someone quoted me as saying, 'I wish he was a bachelor.'

I wish no such thing! Is there a scarcity of single men that I'd want a married man? All these things are very embarrassing. Recently they made a headline about a relationship (with Kunal Kapoor) that I had a year ago. What relevance does it have today?"

Raima will be doing just a couple of films in Bengali. "It is my mother tongue. But now I need to build on my career in Mumbai."