Nikita Anand’s ticket to Bollywood
After walking the ramp, modelling for print, and anchoring shows on fast cars and cricket on television, former Miss India Universe 2003 Nikita Anand could be said to be around in the glam biz for a while.
But there’s no chance she’s anchoring her nascent film career just yet. On the contrary, it’s set sail with her debut film, Dil Dosti Etc directed by the Cambridge-educated Bihari director Manish Tiwari, releasing at the end of the month.
“I signed the film in February 2006 and it has been a long wait. I took up kathak classes before I started shooting for the film as dancing is very key to the film plot in Bollywood. I even took up theatre workshops. It’s been a very new experience shooting for the film with my costars Shreyas Talpade and Imaad Shah. There’s a lot of waiting around and more importance is given to the camera set up and the lights than the actors!,” laughs Nikita.
Did her title help her get a foothold in the industry? “Being a Miss India has never been a disadvantage to me, despite there being a new one every year. It always helps,” she says. And what is her take on the philanthropic questions that they field as Miss Indias?
“It’s so funny that we Miss Indias are always subjected to ridicule about our so-called clichéd, charitable answers on looking after the world’s impoverished children and the like. But what beats me is that how the typical questions are overlooked. Why would we prepare ourselves to answer those questions if they stopped asking them? It’s ironical. If you wanted to be like Mother Teresa, you wouldn’t be posing in a bathing suit on a world stage. You would just go to her foundation and work quietly,” says the brazen Nikita.
Was it a natural progression for her to get into movies like the earlier Miss Indias like Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra and Sushmita Sen? “Well, some girls decide beforehand that when they win, the next step will be films. But I had not predecided that I will be an actress. I just thought that I wasn’t mentally prepared then, but I am now,” says the girl who “loves to mimic and pick up foreign accents”.
What kind of work is she looking for? “I just want to do quality work, but I don’t want to be a part of the filth that’s happening,” she says. Given that she shuttles between Delhi and Mumbai every fortnight, she’s even taken up a place in Mumbai now to make it that much easier to work in Bollywood. Serious about showbiz are we?
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