'I'm glad I've no man in my life': Rani!!

By Subhash K Jha

For those who are wondering how Rani Mukherjee managed to get into those short skirts in Siddharth Anand's Tara Rum Pum Pum Rani has the answer.

"Getting slim, my dear. That's the magic mantra," she reveals while shooting for Pradeep Sarkar's Laga Chunri Main Daag. "The minute I was told about what kind of look I'm supposed to carry off in a major part of Tara Rum Pum Pum I knew I had to get seriously slim. If I had put on those short skirts looking the way I did earlier, I'd have looked pretty cracked."

For the period that Rani toned her physique for the skirts she made her trainer work over-time. " I made my trainer Satya's life a living hell. I don't think he has ever had a more demanding client."

Besides the slim and svelte look Rani also had to make sure the clothes went with the transitions in the character's life. "See, at first Saif and I play collegians. Then I gradually go on to being the mother of two growing kids. So I had to have a specific before-and-after look. Surprisingly I've never played a mother before in any of my films."

Says Rani, "My dress designer Sureeli Goel was driven up the wall by my demands. See, today the character's LOOK is very important. Not just the heroines, even the heroes devote a lot of time to getting the look right.

Earlier I'd constantly have fights about my clothes with Manish Malhotra and Sabysachi. Now it was Sureeli's turn to get the brunt of my exacting nature. All three designers feel I'm one of the most quarrelsome heroines they've worked with."

Rani chuckles hard, and then sobers down when director Pradeep Sarkar drops in to brief her for the day's shooting. They converse in fluent Bengali and obviously have a lot of feelings to share.

Sighs Rani, "I don't know where all those stories about me squabbling with Dada came from. Probably from people who want to see us fight and cannot bear to find me getting along with my directors. Whether it's Siddharth Anand (who incidentally was in college with me) or Pradeep Sarkar, I'm the last person to create any problems."

Rani will now finish her solo portions in Sarkar's film and then wait for Abhishek to return from his honeymoon in June before shooting with him.

"Almost all of Abhishek's scenes in Laga Chunri Mein Daag are with me. So we'll be shooting together constantly in June. I'm looking forward to that. I'm really happy for Abhishek and Ash. They deserve all the happiness in the world."

What about romantic love in Rani's own life? "I'm not holding my breath for it. Love isn't something that obeys a time frame. When it happens, it'll happen.

In a way I'm glad I don't have a man in my life. It gives me the chance to focus completely on my work. But if and when it happens, I'm not going say no to love just because I'm busy with my career. No way."