The girl named Fame!

What would our world be without beautiful women? Take Kirti Reddy, Abhishek’s co-star in the currently-showing Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa, for instance. She makes you wonder why she didn’t participate in any beauty competition — she would have won any of them hands down. Take a look at some of our Indian beauties, like Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Diana Hayden, Lara Dutta and Yukta Mookhey, and you’ll know why Ben Kingsley said he’s never seen girls as beautiful as Indian girls, writes Ali Peter John...

I open the door to the suite of a fivestar hotel in Mumbai. I am scared to say “Good afternoon,” to the fair, fragile young woman, almost as if my words may hurt her. She’s beautiful, more beautiful than any dictionary describes the word. She’s fair (I can scarcely tell you how much), has beautiful eyes, luscious hair and a voice so soft, so sweet that you strain all the nerves in your ears to listen to her. She is dressed all in stark white, the kind of whiteness one seldom sees. And when she finally starts talking, you feel she’s reciting little poems about her life.

Kirti is already a well-known actress in the South. She lives in Bangalore. She would love to live all her life in Bangalore because she can never dream of living in any other city anywhere in the world. She was not a very ambitious girl when in school or college. She was not attracted by all the glitter and the glamour of showbiz, but she had a strange foreboding from time to time, that she’d some day have something to do with it.

One day, the well-known actor and director of Tamil films, Nassar, found her and discovered sheer magic in her. He saw her and she had conquered him. He wanted to make a film called Devathai (goddess) and who could look and play the goddess better than Kirti. She agreed to Nassar’s offer, and within no time, Kirti was one of the most-talked about girls in the South. She was flooded with offers but chose just two, because she didn’t want to fall into a rut.

It was about this time that Vashu Bhagnani went down South, looking for a beautiful girl for his hero Abhishek Bachchan for an ambitious film he was planning called Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya. Vashu also took the risk of signing a new director, A Muthu, who has been David Dhawan’s editor for a number of years.

The film was released last week, and Abhishek has already been accepted as a staractor. It is Kirti’s turn now. She says she has had no problems whatsoever during the making of the film. She was very comfortable throughout, enjoyed working with the star son who was just what an actor should be, no airs, no tantrums, all cooperation. “I will never forget my experience of working with Abhishek, a young man who could have behaved like a demi-God but was so simple, so well-behaved, so balanced and so different from the other young men I’ve worked with. I think it’s all a matter of upbringing. I have met his entire family and just a few minutes with them can give you an idea of what values, what culture Abhishek’s been brought up in.”

Excerpts from an interview with Kirti Reddy...

How do you feel when your contemporaries, directors, writers and even the comman man on in the streets, call you beautiful?
I am a very normal girl. I am created beautiful by God alone. I don’t know why He has been so kind to me. I could have been anyone else but He has made me, Kirti Reddy, a girl everyone loves to look at, to talk to. I have already been flooded with praise after the promos of the film were released, but I’ve decided never to let any of it go to my head. I am Kirti Reddy. People say I am beautiful. I am a good dancer. I can act and work very hard to give my filmmakers the best results they deserve for the interest they take in me. I am only going to concentrate on Hindi films now. It is farewell to regional films made in the South at least for the present. Where else but in Hindi films would one get an opportunity to work in a film where the money spent on the publicity alone can be a staggering sum? But that’s Vashuji’s style of filmmaking, I am told. He doesn’t leave any space, any stone and if he had his way, any leaf without Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya embossed or painted on it. He has raised expectations from Kirti Reddy sky high. I don’t know whether I’ll ever be able to live upto them. I hope I do. If I don’t, I’ll have only myself to blame. One thing I know for sure is, I’ve worked very very hard. Now I can only hope that hard work pays.

What do you think are the differences between the systems in the South and in Mumbai?
I am still learning. I am a great learner. I come to conclusions only when I have learnt enough about the subject I am interested in or would be interested in the future. Otherwise who am I, just a yesterday-girl to pass judgement on major issues which make a very big difference to the industry?

So how do you feel just a few days before the release of your first ever Hindi film?
Dhak dhak dhak, but not in the Madhuri way. Dhak dhak dhak, very softly. But I am not scared, certainly not. I know I was good in all the films that I did in the South. Theyt gave me the basic experience. In a way they were tougher films to do than Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya. Those three films I did in the South, I will never forget because they were my kindergarten and my finishing school. I hope the film does well not only for me but for Vashuju, for Muthuji, my director, who is directing his first film and Abhishek Bachchan, not just because he is the son of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan but because of the interest he has taken in the making of the film. Can you imagine a 23-year-old playing one particular kind of role in Refugee and then a strikingly different one in his very next film? They are two very different Abhisheks and I think it’s very rarely that you find actors who’ve set such high standards for themselves while still so young.

Did you ever feel anxious or nervous at working with the star-son of the biggest star of the millennium?
I was a little scared in the initial stages but this star-son is such a fantastic person, so simple, so talented and so serious about his job. This young man is extraordinary. He can be very serious when he is working and the biggest practical prankster when he isn’t. He is so full of knowledge, he knows so much about cinema. I’ve developed a great sense of admiration for him, as you can see.

What happens to Bangalore, the city you said was the the city of your dreams?
I have plans for Bangalore. I have dreams for Bangalore. I may go anywhere, I may reach anywhere, I may be successful, I may make it big but I will never forget Bangalore. I have a secret plan for the city but what that plan is I can’t tell you right now.

Have you tried to make friends with stars, directors, writers in Mumbai?
That is my first intention but this film has kept me so busy that I have not been able to find the time to reach out to these people. But I will because now this is home for me and if you don’t know your own people at home you can’t live a comfortable life. I am not here just for fame or fortune, I am here for satisfaction, total satisfaction which comes from within, which also comes from the kind of people you work with.

How do you propose to live upto your name, Kirti (fame)?
I intend to do everything possible. Make use of all the gifts that I have been endowed with. Make no mistakes, enter no controversies, not make mountains out of mole-hills, not hurt anyone in anyway, just be me, just be Kirti whether I win kirti (fame) or not.

PS. She leaves me down in the lobby and allt The time I feel I am sitting, talking, walking with an apparition in white.

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