Bollywood Zone : Blog, Movies, Celebs

It’s news that wouldn’t make too many Bollywood bigwigs happy. But one Bollywood babe certainly is. This year’s Euro RSCG Bollywood Predictameter has said that many of 2007’s much-awaited films - including biggies like Om Shanti Om, Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag, Saavariyan and Aaja Nach Le - are likely to disappoint at the box office. But it also says that the surprise hit of the year will be another Ram Gopal Varma film: the lowkey Fardeen and Isha Koppikar starrer Darling.

Tell Isha the news as she’s getting set for her shooting for Har Pal, costarring Preity Zinta and Shiney Ahuja, and she’s thrilled. “Wow! Great!” she screams. She’s especially excited because the role itself is so different. In Darling, Isha plays a simple housewife, fighting a sexy ghost (played by Esha Deol) for the attention of husband Fardeen. “I’m totally a girl next door,” she says, “It’s a complete image change. My character’s life begins and ends with her husband and child. She’s principled, rigid, very strong - only blacks and whites in her life,” she says.

What made her opt for this character, so different from her usual image? “It was the role I was offered,” she says, “and I have no qualms about doing it. I could have carried off both. But I’m sure Ramu is very happy with what I’ve done.” Actually, she loves the experimenting, she admits. “I’d love to play different roles. I hate being monotonous, predictable. Right from the beginning I’ve done different things - Girlfriend, Don, Shabari - which will be out in a couple of months. Now Har Pal.” Is she disappointed not to be part of the mega-star cast of Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag? “Of course. I would have loved to have played Basanti’s role. But Ramu thought I didn’t suit the role and took someone else. He’s the filmmaker, it’s his vision, his preference after all,” she says. Does she find a place in Don 2, at least, considering she managed to make her presence felt in the first one? “Everyone says Farhan Akhtar is making Don 2 except Farhan Akhtar,” she laughs. Isha’s also excited about Hello, the film based on One Night At A Call Centre. “It’s so real now - the stress that bogs down your personal life and the frustrations that we take out at work. This kind of movie is so relevant today - look at Life in a… Metro. Multiplex movies are doing very well.” But Isha’s far from given up her dancing queen tag. “Oh, I’m dancing anyway, most of the time. In Hello, it’s to a Sunidhi Chauhan-Daler Mehendi tune that is bound to rock the discos.”

You say Darling, she turns back. Refer to her as Shabri and she looks out for who has called her. And when you say Hello, she replies nevertheless. Hello, Shabri Darling! This is how Ishaa Koppikar is being referred to of late. All three movies are slated for release and she has vastly different roles in each of them. In Shabri, she’s got a deglamorised look, while the look in Darling is an all-new softer Ishaa. As for Hello, the Atul Agnihotri film, it is about life in a call centre. Life has never been so good for Ishaa. Looks like item numbers are absolutely ‘khallas’ now!

She’s romanced a number of young men on screen and Ishaa Koppikar admits that she is a romantic fool in real life too. “My brother often tells me not to be like that, that it will hurt me at the end of the day, but I can’t do anything about it,” she smiles. The Ishq Samandar girl likes a quotation from a book, which she often reads when she’s feeling under the weather, “One needs to be a complete person to love someone. The reason you need someone is to share your completeness with him. If you’re incomplete within yourself, then you’ll just be sharing your incompleteness with him,” she quotes.

After sizzling on the screen in the two item numbers Khallas and Ishq Samandar, Ishaa Koppikar was seen in a special appearance in 36 Chinatown. Looking better than ever, the girl is now looking forward to some power-packed roles in Don and Shabri. “I used to tell myself that I’m a girl of very good character, since I’m doing so many character roles,” she laughs. But with her forthcoming films in which the actor has much more to do than make special appearances, Ishaa might just prove that she’s ’special’ as well!

Actor Ishaa Koppikar denies that she was a victim of domestic violence while she was seeing actor Inder Kumar. “Inder is a great friend and the last thing he needs right now is for people to link him with me,” says actor Ishaa Koppikar, reacting to reports about her getting back with her former boyfriend.

For those who came in late, the Khallas girl and upcoming actor Inder Kumar were seeing each other for almost four years before they decided to break off in 2001. Then, in what could be seen as a filmi twist, Inder got married to someone else, went through a bad marriage and is now undergoing divorce proceedings. However, Ishaa and Inder have been spotted together on the party circuit once again! But hadn’t Ishaa confessed some years back to a magazine that they had broken up due to alleged domestic violence in their relationship? Ishaa is quick to refute, “Inder is a very impulsive guy but he never raised his hand on me.”

She says they had mutually decided to break up in 2001. “Khallas had happened and I was doing well for myself. Inder still had to make a mark for himself. We thought our relationship wouldn’t work out and we decided to part ways,” she explains.

So, have she and Inder got back together again? “I was very close to his mother and when she passed away, I got in touch with him. He was going through a very rough phase in his life at that time and needed a friend. I think we’re two nice people in a relationship that cannot be termed. It’s true we’re friends again but whether we will remain friends tomorrow or if this relationship will blossom further is something I cannot say at the moment,” she says.

Ishaa supports Inder’s divorce and feels he needs to move on, both professionally and personally. “He has gone through a very bad marriage, lost his mother and had an almost fatal accident when he was just starting his career. I want him to resurrect his life at this point,” she says.

Ishaa Koppikar is under a self-imposed exile. She has been homebound ever since her face broke into a nasty rash. The rash is the outcome of Ishaa’s binging after maintaining a rigorous diet during the shooting of Farhan Akhtar’s film Don. “I was asked to lose weight by Farhan and was under a strict diet for the last six months,” she says. “I am a complete foodie and I had to really control myself during those months.”

Ishaa, who was shooting in Malaysia with Shah Rukh Khan and the team, decided to take some liberties on the last day of the shoot. “I was allowed to binge once the shoot ended. So, we all headed to a restaurant in Malaysia and I gorged on everything served in the buffet. I had oysters, crabs, lobsters and salmon. When it comes to sea food, I cannot control myself,” says Ishaa.

Now, Ishaa is bearing the brunt of this excess. “I came to Mumbai the next day looking terrible. I don’t know how my parents recognised me,” she says. She didn’t realise the seriousness of the allergy until the next day when she went out with her friends for dinner and ate fish again. “That did it, the next day my face was so swollen that it resembled a football,” she says. The rash has spread all over her face. “It is difficult because I am a celebrity and people expect celebrities to be picture perfect,” she says.

After a visit to her beautician and the application of some anti-allergy ointment, the allergy is under control. But it has not reduced enough for her to step out of home. “I should probably wear a mask and go out now,” she laughs.