ACHALA SACHDEV: From Mira Nair to Hrithik Roshan

She's recently replaced Lisa Ray in Arjun Sablok's Na Tum Jano Na Hum and Achala Sachdev has reason to pop the bubbly. The film has given her a chance to share the screen with the nation's heart-throb Hrithik Roshan and improve on the blink-and-you'll-miss-me debut she made in Mira Nair's Kamasutra. Chatting up the model girl.

If you're cued in on the modeling scene then the name Achala Sachdev should ring a bell instantly. She starred in the very first ad for Sheetal and made the design studio's very western, futuristic outfits an instant rage. Next came the YSL fashion show at the Gateway of India and Delhi's purana qila for which Achala walked the ramp with some 60 supermodels, 16 of them lovely Parisian beauties. Even in this crowd of beautiful faces she stood out as the stunning YSL bride in a beige wedding gown. At the age of 20 Achala was making heads turn at New York and London's fashion shows. It was a pity that at 5 feet 8 inches she wasn't considered tall enough by international standards and her lack of inches cut short a promising career on the catwalk. But Achala is still well-known in the modeling world thanks to the fashion shows she's been choreographing so successfully and models like Sampada Inamder and Farheen Khan whom she's groomed.

If you're a film buff then the name Achala Sachdev should also ring a bell because she recently replaced Lisa Ray in Arjun Sablok's Hrithik Roshan-Esha Deol starrer, Na Tum Jano Na Hum and immediately booked herself a place in the film glossies as the most-talked-about-replacement in town. "Naturally everyone's going, 'Wow, you're doing a film with Hrithik!' It's very exciting but at the same time I have to remind them that it's only a cameo and I may be there on screen for only five minutes," Achala laughs.

She has reason to be wary. When she caught the eye of Mira Nair's casting director, Uma Dacunha and sailed through an audition, Achala had expected Kamasutra--A Tale of Love to be the kind of break all starry-eyed aspirants dreamt of. But Achala's dreams were dashed when Mira overshot on footage and at the editing table Achala's 15-20 days work ended up as a blink-and-you'll-miss-me kind of role. Recalling KS Achala admits that she was disappointed that her first film appearance had turned out to be so easy to dismiss. She however insists that working with Mira was a good learning experience. "When I was in costume shooting at Khajuraho it was easy to imagine that I was part of another century, another world. In fact, the day I was leaving, I slipped into my jeans after almost a fortnight and felt kind of weird to be going back to the everyday life of the 20th century," Achala remembers with a smile.

A lot of people, you remind her, were as disappointed with the film as she was about her scenes being snipped. KS, they said, was all body and no soul. "It certainly was not," Achala snaps. "It was a visually stunning film with an excellent music score. But yes, maybe the story and the climax were slightly weak. KS would have been a much better film if it had a more taut script."

After the KS experience it's understandable that Achala doesn't want to raise her hopes and that of everyone else too high with Na Tum Jano Na Hum. Even though she was the first choice for the role. Yeah, very few know this but Achala was the first person to whom Vivek Singhania had confessed that Pantaloons was getting into show business and there was a great role going for her in his first film. Achala was told to get in touch with the director Arjun Sablok promptly. But caught up in her shows and serials Achala forgot all about the film offer. And Lisa Ray walked into the picture.

Fortunately for Achala Lisa didn't last out long. Peeved with the fact that she wasn't getting as much attention as the other stars, Lisa staged a walkout. Vivek called Achala home one late evening and insisted she come over to Filmistan studio immediately. Half an hour later Achala had bagged Na Tum Jano Na Hum. She's shot just three days for Na Tum Jano Na Hum and is delighted to find that her character in the film is so much like her. "She's funny and bubbly and though she loves dressing up sexily she doesn't dwell on her looks and her sex appeal and is actually surprised when people tell her she's sexy. I'm like that too," admits the girl who not so long ago turned up for a party wearing a pair of largish shells. "It was just a joke," Achala giggles. "Normally I'm covered up in a sarong or a stole but this once I decided to do something really crazy. Thank God, a lot of people could laugh at my wicked sense of humour. Some of course, were shell shocked."

Interestingly, the character Achala plays in Na Tum Jano Na Hum is that of a choreographer who wants to be an actress too. Could the role have been written with her in mind? "I don't think so. Lisa was supposed to do the film, remember?" she points out, and then adds with a throaty chuckle, "Anyway, I'm not a wanna be actress. Sure, I'm open to film offers and wouldn't mind playing even a bimbette if the role makes sense and seems worth my time. But I'm not desperate to make it as an actress. I have a good career going as a choreographer. If films work great, otherwise I have a job on hand."

What is it like working with Hrithik Roshan, the heart-throb of the nation? "I don't see him as the Hrithik Roshan. For me he's just a colleague who happens to be a very good-looking, cultured and wonderfully nice guy. Our equation is different because I'd met Hrithik before he became a star when I was interviewing his dad, Rakesh Roshan on my show, Star's Day Out. After that I bumped into Hrithik again at a shoot. Of course, by the time we started working on Na Tum Jano Na Hum he was a star. Thank God he doesn't act like one though," she smiles.

And what's the oh-so-elusive Esha Deol like? "I've met her only twice. She seems like a sweet kid," Achala shrugs. Like Esha Achala's star trek began early. Her first brush of acting was in Janak Toprani's laugh-till-you-drop play, Hanky Panky. "It ran for 25 solid weeks and made me realize that acting was good fun even though it was hard to play a bimbette because I'm certainly not bubble-headed in real life," she laughs.

Bible was her first TV serial. Playing Hegar was an experience of a lifetime because she had to shoot on the sands of Pushar on a day when the temperature had escalated to a scalding 45 degrees. "I had to run barefoot in the scorching desert sands, carrying a 12-year-old kid, sliding down hillocks and sobbing in agony in a desperate search for water. The make-up person had painted my face with red sunburns but the burns on my feet after the shot were for real. And you know what, I was so focussed on the shot that I didn't even feel the pain," she marvels. After going through such trails for a shot it was agony for her when the serial following a series of protests was abruptly yanked off. "It was unfortunate because it was a brilliant serial with an excellent director and cameraman and it might have been as popular and informative as the Mahabharat had it been allowed to run it's course," she sighs. However, the experience of shooting with a unit who were on the sets by 6 a.m. sharp and hauled up offenders like her for being five minutes late, was well worth it. "The discipline they ingrained in me has stood me in good stead. It's wonderful to work with a South unit," Achala raves.

Achala had the chance of working with another unit from down South, with Mani Ratnam himself. Farah Khan had first offered Chaiya Chaiya to her. But the thought of dancing on top of a train scared Achala off. "I just didn't have the guts and I never realized that we would be on a toy train and there would be no danger of falling," she sighs. The Dil Se chart-topper put Malaika Arora on the road to stardom but Achala was not to be left behind. When Prakash Jha offered her a special item number in his Dil Kya Karen Achala didn't think twice and wowed everyone with her natural flair for dancing and her Rajasthani get-up in Meinu laga lagi. Today Achala is open to all kinds of roles and dreams of dancing with the Hero No. 1, Govinda one day.

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