It's all about respect, says Bibasha basu

Bipasha Basu talks about the need for AIDS awareness, John Abraham and her growing female fan following.

Bipasha Basu is the latest celebrity to endorse the 'Haath Se Haath Mila', an HIV/AIDS awareness mass media campaign.

The actor joins hands with Dr Rashmi Vijayaswami, who has been actively involved in creating awareness and treating AIDS patients. Earlier, stars like Viveik Oberoi, Shilpa Shetty, Priyanka Chopra, Urmila Matondkar, Fardeen Khan and Raveena Tandon have been a part of this campaign.

Bipasha says meeting Rashmi was an eye opener. She says, "The rate at which the number of AIDS patients in India is growing is alarming. We are just a little better off than Africa. I am amazed at the kind of work people like Rashmi are doing. In spite of being a young woman, she deals with commercial sex workers and educates them about even how to wear a condom! She is a doctor; she could have made money anywhere, but she chooses to do something like this."

With regard to her involvement in this cause, she says, "We celebrities can contribute in a way because we can get them a bit of media coverage. Monetarily we have been blessed with so much, if each of us donated even a little, it would make a lot of difference."

In spite of being a part of such serious issues, onscreen she is lauded more for her 'Beedi Jalaike…' act as compared to playing a 'Corporate' honcho. "I disagree. 'Corporate' has given me a lot of respect. I have received so many letters, especially from women. Men have always been doing that, but what counts more is praise coming from women. As a woman, I always look up to women and their opinions."

Bipasha says she is launching a website and the people who are doing it for her insist that she has more female fans than men. "They say, 'You think only John has a female fan following? You will be surprised how many women love you'. Getting respect for your work obviously gives you a high."

But Bipasha is peeved with the way her relationship with John has been under so much speculation. She says, "John and I are not answerable to anybody. We are very respectable people, individually and as a couple. But I don't let these things affect me too much, and if I did, I would stop respecting myself."