Yash Raj Films know how to project their heroines

By Joginder Tuteja

Ex-inmate of last season's BIG BOSS, Payal Rohatgi, has explored the root cause behind her initial stint with Bollywood being not as successful as she had envisaged. She confesses that the biggest goof up of her career was to indulge into skin shows in movies that were not male dominated.

"My biggest goof up earlier on was to expose in women oriented films. This turned out to be a huge drawback for me as I didn't know the nuances of film making at that time.

I didn't know from where did the projects come from, what would they depict of me and how would they be eventually marketed", says Payal who came from a middle class background and decided to take Bollywood by storm all on her own.

"Look at Yash Raj productions. In their films too you find skin show on a regular basis. However, what works in their favour is the fact that a) these scenes are aesthetically done and b) they know how to market their films and project their heroines", she sighs.

"Today more successful actresses are happily stripping into lingerie, are seen on magazine covers and are participating in bold photo shoots. Even in movies, it's a holds-no-bar approach for so many of them.

However, what really works for them is the fact that they are doing so in films where their male co-stars are pretty established", says Payal who has vowed during last three years that quality will take precedence over quantity in the choices that she would make.

Since 2006, Payal, who has also studied Computer Engineering, has been seen only in big films like Abbas-Mustan's '36 China Town', Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Corporate', Priyadarshan's 'Dhol' and Irrfan Khan starrer 'Dil Kabaddi'.

Any regrets over the years gone by?

"Not at all! I don't regret my initial years as these were my learning steps. For a middle class girl who didn't come from a metro, I have done well and managed to establish myself to a good extent. I have realised over a period of time that my earlier decisions were not good and I don't think there is a big deal in admitting that", she is quick to respond.

She is not against skin show though and agrees that an actor should be comfortable with her skin.

"Come on, let's be realistic. At the end of the day every actress wants to be hot", she smiles, "Everyone dies to have a great body, be fit and look glamorous. If someone says she doesn't believe in this then I won't be quite sure whether she is stating truth".

She ends the conversation with a positive tone in her voice, "It requires a lot of guts to figure out what was going wrong in your life and find a new way of living. There are so many out there who just die with their ego intact because they never even attempted figuring out what went wrong. At least I can proudly say that I am much better placed than them."