Asin

Her first set of co-stars includes Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan. Now that’s a wish-list that most actresses manage later on in their careers! Rachana Parekh catches up with the Southern wonder, Asin. In a casual conversation with another southern wonder, Siddharth (Rang De Basanti) mentioned that the one person to watch out for back home was actress Asin. And next I heard that the super-talented Aamir Khan wanted the actress of the original Ghajini to do the Hindi remake as well! Now that’s one lucky girl; and she is definitely being looked upon as someone with great potential. Asin so far has been fortunate enough to achieve whatever she has set her sights on. While still in school she had become a local celebrity of sorts, thanks to her entrepreneurial skills! Then as an actress she was lucky to work with the best - Kamal Haasan, Surya, Ajith Lal and now with Aamir Khan in her first Hindi feature film. And that was one of the reasons why the 20-something accepted the offer to work in the remake of her own Tamil film. For an actor to project the same character onscreen for the second time can be tiresome. However, if it gives you a chance to work with the finest team - even when it does not have maximum running time onscreen - it clearly does not matter. Asin agrees with that, “Yeah, it was a dream team to make a debut with - director Murgadoss, cinematographer Ravi K Chandra and then you have Aamir Khan as your co-star, so as a baby step into HiFI it is fabulous.” Incidentally, as a school girl the young actress recollects dancing to the tunes of Lagaan. “I would dance to those songs over and over again…so that answers your question about why I took up the remake!” she smiles. This, incidentally, was not the first Hindi film she was offered. Among the several others, she was also offered Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Delhi 6 which she could not do because of a “clash of dates with Ghajini”. Ask her if she is aware that Aamir insisted that the original ‘Kalpana’ do the role and she embarrassedly answers, “I don’t know about all that. I got a call from the production people. But I don’t know what has gone on behind the scenes.” Recalling her first meeting with Aamir, she says, “I met him just the day before our shoot. We did not have meetings or screen tests. I met him at his place. He and his wife were there. They were very sweet. He comes across as a very simple person and that makes everything else more comfortable. His behaviour, the way he sits, there are no hang-ups, no starry airs that you would associate with a star.”