She's without make-up and in a loose-fitting mustard salwar-kameez - but there's no missing Madhuri Dixit's magnetic personality or the high-wattage smile. Peals of laughter, infectious though somewhat rehearsed, punctuate her chatter. The words flow unceasingly until she hits a personal question. She took two hours off her busy schedule to talk to Senior Correspondent Anupama Chandra. Excerpts:
Q. Do you like being called sexy?
A. Sexy is a general word. You can look innocent and yet sensuous. In India sexy means just revealing. People have found the songs that I've done in Sailaab, Beta and Tezaab very sensuous.
Q. How do you reconcile your off-screen middle class milieu with your on-screen boldness?
A. I've always done things I felt comfortable with. Like in Parinda, the effect of the love-making scene was very nice, but we were wearing everything. Only the hands and shoulders were bare, the backlight was used - so the effect is of some surface of the body.
Q. Did you ever have to struggle to overcome middle class inhibitions?
A. No. Things like Dhak dhak just happened on the sets. As we kept dancing, it kept developing. But I regret doing the kissing scene in Dayavaan. But when you are new, you don't know if you can tell the director you don't want to do it. But after that I put my foot down. I realised that you can say no.
Q. You are doing another Choli number in Yaarana. Do you think you are getting typecast as the dancing heroine?
A. Even in the old days, whether it was Madhubala, Meena Kumari or Nargis, they all danced. People don't accept a film without any songs.
Q. But your dancing has become so much a part of what you actually are.
A. Yes, that is one of my plus points.
Q. But don't you think that might stop being a plus point because people say Madhuri hai to dance hona chahiye?
A. That is bound to happen because it is one of my strong assets. But I would like to break that.
Q. Is Prakash Jha's Mrityudand an attempt at changing the image?
A. No, it's not. If I try to break away then I have to do only different kinds of roles, the parallel cinema, where there is no dancing at all. But right now, I'm part of the commercial setup and I'm proud of it.
Q. Are you willing to play around with your image?
A. Yes, If you stick to one thing, you will get boring after some time. Right now, I'm doing one parallel film a year.
Q. Is that to fine-tune your acting talent or do you find that mainstream gives you enough opportunity to act?
A. I tell you, mainstream is more difficult than anything else. To be given unnatural situations where you have to look convincing, that's very difficult.
| "Mainstream cinema is more difficult than doing parallel films. Looking convincing in unnatural situations is not easy." |
Q. Are you number one?
A. See, was Madhubala or Nargis number one or number two? No, they were Madhubala and Nargisji. We are not inanimate objects to be numbered like that. I'm Madhuri Dixit and I want to be remembered as that. And if you feel you're number one, you stop growing. My best is yet to come.
Q. What are your ambitions?
A. I want to do better work.
Q. Do you think heroines are getting a better deal today?
A. There was a stage when there were mostly hero's films. Now the trend is changing. Films like Sir and Hum Hain Raahi Pyar Ke are doing well. Also, women are becoming more important, are working outside. Because people have started accepting women being independent, actresses also get important roles today.
Q. You've always maintained a distance from the press. What do you have to hide?
A. I've always believed that what I do after pack-up is my business. I have my family and I'm answerable to them. And I know that tomorrow if something happens to me, the person on the street or the journalist will not care. I will have only my family.
Q. Was there something in your reported affair with Sanjay Dutt?
A. Look, I would rather not talk about it.
Q. Then, were you upset by the way the press splashed it all over?
A. I stopped being upset by the media a long time ago.
Q. You once said in a magazine interview that you've never been attracted to a man. Is this true?
A. Yes.
Q. So who do you fantasise about?
A. Well, I used to be a big fan of Gregory Peck.
Q. What do you imagine Mr Right would be like?
A. He must be honest, a gentleman, he must have a sense of humour.
Q. Look into the mirror and analyse your appeal. What works?
A. I guess a kind of honesty in what I am and what I do. If a director tells me to do something, there is no cynicism on my part. The sincerity and intensity are there, whether it's the antakshri scene in Khalnayak where she's kind of crazy or the court scene, where she is quiet and has surrendered. Probably, somewhere the honesty reaches out.
Q. Your eyes and smile are said to be your biggest draw...
A. Those are just physical things. You say, the eyes are beautiful, wow. Okay, but how long can you sustain that? After a while, what's happening on the screen comes forward. It's not like if I'm crying, they'll say, 'oh, her eyes are beautiful'.
Q. It must be heady being at the top?
A. Yes, when people come and tell me, especially little children - I love children - I saw your film, it's a high. But the important thing is, I'm not in love with myself, with the image. I won't wear make-up off-screen because people want to see me that way. I look at acting as a profession, as any other profession. So if I'm successful, that doesn't make me a goddess.
Q. Do you think you can live without the arc lights?
A. I don't know. Right now, it's easy to say yes, because I'm warm and safe under the lights. But yes, I could live without it. I would do something else and probably be successful at it. Yes, I would survive.
Anupamaa
Naagin 7
3