'Who is Roopa Ganguly?” asks Anita!!

Ekta's Mahabharat is the latest buzz that's catching everybody's fancy. Speculations on which of the favorites would land up with plum roles is a bet that's making rounds. And the latest to make it to the headlines is none other than the main character, Draupadi and essaying the important role is Anita Hassanandani. Vidhya Krishnan caught up the actress, in an elated, yet treading-on-shaky-ground mood to know more about the happenings.

We couldn't resist kick starting the interview with comparing her with Roopa Ganguly and Anita, promptly answered, "Excuse me, but who is Roopa Ganguly?"

She then got comfortable and chatty on essaying the role of Draupadi…

A little nervous, because I can see the industry and the people scrutinizing every move of mine. Though, the shoot hasn't started, people have already started the comparisons. But, mercifully, like my character, I'm strong and I'm learning to weather the storm.

It happened when I was shooting for Fear Factor and out of the blue I got a call from Ekta asking me whether I would play this role and I instantly agreed to it. Since I was busy with the Fear Factor thing, nothing else occurred to me and I just agreed without any thought at that point of time. It hadn't sunk in till a while, but when it did, well, it did knock me out for a while, but then began the thrill. Yes, I'm surprised … I didn't expect to play this kind of a role and that too this early in my career. But, now that the role's in my kitty, I'm working on my style.

The supposed strain between the Ekta's angels – Gauri Pradhan and Anita over the role of Draupadi… Well, there's no point talking about it, because the media is still going to draw its own inferences. Both Gauri and I are good friends, but professionally, we draw the line. As a professional, I know that I've bagged the role and I'm very positive about it. One never gets to experiment with playing such roles and it is definitely going to be a different role for me until date that I have played in my career.

Balaji is my second family and that comfort level always exists.

Preparing for the role is a Herculean task…because I haven't really seen the earlier Mahabharata. And the Hindi is going to be different and I will have to work on that bit. As far as my looks are concerned, I'm working on my hair which needs to grow long and knock off some kilos.