SWINI KHARA-The prankster-New Artcl

SWINI KHARA

She was called 'Sexy' by someone called Amitabh Bachchan in her last screen outing, but reduced the audience to tears. That was Cheeni Kum but in this Friday's release Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors, Swini Khara is out to have fun and make viewers laugh.

"I am Tuktuk. Tuktuk ko jitni pranks aati hain mujhe bhi aati nahin," chirps the Class V student of Ryan International, en route to the film's premiere in Mumbai. She assists screen cousin Zain in a mission to thwart crooks bent on stealing a vital chip from their house.

Swini has appeared in many films, but Hari Puttar is what she enjoyed most. "I had so much fun. The best prank was when we dropped a spider on the thieves." Swini clarifies that the spider was in a box! Another sequence where the crooks walk into a box of muck also gets a thumbs up from her.

"Zain and I were friends from the time of Parineeta," reveals Swini. She was child-Raima there to Zain's child-Saif. On the Hari Puttar sets, though, her favourite was Sarika-didi, who plays her aunt. The Hari Puttar shooting happened in Yorkshire. "It was my Diwali vacation. England is so cold! But I love London." That was her first trip to the UK and she would return there for the shooting of Cheeni Kum.

While Tuktuk was easy, being Sexy was tough. And if the spectre of death followed her in Cheeni Kum, she is now working in a film called Kaalo where a witch (played by a local actor from Rajasthan) is determined to kill her to get special powers from the Devil. "He has already killed two girls. But with me, he runs into problems."

The other film she is involved with is a Shahid Kapur-Ayesha Takia starrer called Pathshala. That's a lot of work for a 10-year-old. But for now she is busy inviting the audience: "Iss baar maza lene aiye".