Darling, I was busy, the gorgeous Celina Jaitley croons over the phone. Finally, she took our call as she awaited her flight back home, having spent more than 10 days in Hyderabad.
“It was like studying for the board exams,” she sighs and explains —“It’s for Sreemathi, dear! I’d been mugging up two pages of Kannada dialogues everyday!”
By the way, Celina’s who’s done an international film, Love Has No Language, is a whiz with languages. Hold your breath! She knows more than five languages and that includes German (she’s a pro she says) and a smattering of Spanish.
So, she does seem to have a fascination for all things firang — from Hollywood ventures, to being a tourist ambassador for Egypt, to boyfriends. When we ask her, she laughs, “I had only one boyfriend and it was a bad experience. I am wary now of relationships. I don’t believe in casual dating and I am looking for a relationship that lasts a lifetime. For the past three years, I haven’t felt the need for a partner. I’m busy with work and life is good!”
Yes it is! Her platter’s full and she’s got interesting roles to play. She reels out a list — “In Sreemathi, a remake of Aitraaz, I play a gold-digger. This is the first time I’m doing a negative role. In my upcoming films I play varied roles, from the typical Sandra from Bandra, to a bar dancer in Tigmanshu Dholia’s Showman, who loves to speak English just to show that she’s educated. Then in Suneel Darshan’s film, I play a psychopath who keeps a man half-alive for 25 days — this is a real life incident that was made into the film Accident at Hill Road” she says. Celina tells us that she also doing a Bengali film, besides Subhash Ghai’s Hello Darling and Paying Guest. Then there’s Chai Garam with Govinda and Run Bhola Run which stars Tusshar Kapoor.
And, what about her pending Hollywood project Queen of Scheherzade. “The film had got delayed due to a writer’s strike and then it is recession now. But the film is on the floors and I had to undergo special training for the film. Riding a horse without a saddle is a challenge and I also learnt sword fighting - I had to do it with a short Afghan knife called the khara.”
Slowly, we veer her back to Hyderabad. So, how was her stay here? “I’m not joking. Hyderabad is fantabulous. It should be the capital of India! I loved gorging on haleem everyday. It’s the best in the world.”
Haleem, that too during Lent, the 40-days of fasting, that she is known to keep? “This is the fist time I’ve skipped, that too on doctor’s advice. I’ve had bouts of low BP and I was afraid I’d conk out on the sets,”
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The bold, courageous beauty had shied away from the Indian media and prefers to be seen with the Chings-&-Changs and Yin-&-Yangs. Well, this time round it’s California, that Mallika is shining in. She showed up at a fund-raising, wine-testing luncheon in Malibu, a few days ago and created quite a stir with her trademark deep neck. The actress, we hear, was auctioned, and the winning bidder got to spend a day with her — you know the usual lunch, photo-shoots et al. Of course the money ($1400) went towards charity. Maan gaye Mallika-e-Sherawat.
