Photographs of John Abraham: Harsh Man Rai, Courtesy: Man's World

I was naturally upset that I was not in Dhoom 2 but I prefer being gracious, rather than undignified and ungrateful.

She burns up the screen with her slinky curves and bold moves...he’s the hunk who fuels countless female fantasies. Sizzling duo, Bipasha Basu and John Abraham are now poised to make a fresh impact on celluloid with offbeat career moves. Shraddha Jahagirdar-Saxena has a candid exchange with the coolest couple in tinsel town

Her Scenes

She’s sitting pretty…in more ways than one. Having got herself into even more perfect physical shape in the last few months – if that were really possible – through a rigid regimen of diet and workouts, the sultry actress has given ‘sexy’ a completely new connotation. No wonder then that No Entry, her latest box- office offering, has seduced the crowds into the theatres with its double entendres and oomphy body language.

His Shots

He’s savouring sweet success at the Toronto Film Festival where Deepa Mehta’s Water was showcased to rave reviews, as he briefly touches home in Mumbai before air dashing to an extended shooting schedule for his prestigious project, Kabul Express.

Their Script

The chemistry that crackled on the screen in Jism was no flash in the pan. Though their subsequent releases (Aitbaar and Madhoshi) did not really set pulses racing, no one questions their combined screen presence. Together, they spell mind-blowing charisma. Making no bones about their attraction for each other, Basu and Abraham have eschewed the routine “We are just good friends” statements.

Over to the hottest, cool combo in tinsel town.

Bipasha Basu’s Takes

At the appointed time her car rolls up outside a swanky suburban watering hole in Mumbai. She strides up to the first floor sunlit area and settles down comfortably in a bucket chair, behind the dark curtains of the hastily created make-up room.Warm, down to earth and very forthright, it does not take long for her to talk about matters closest to her heart – her family and her work. Before embarking on a roller-coaster conversation on the joys and trials of being an actress, I take a few moments to delve into her real life persona. When her father named her ‘Bipasha’, meaning deep dark desire – a feeling she naturally inspires – it must have been prophetic. She laughs out loud at the suggestion. “I love my name because I know that there are not ten of me. Most Indian names are very common. It does make good reading material considering the way my life has turned out.”

A pure and proud Bengali who was born in New Delhi and brought up in Kolkata, Basu admits to being laid-back, “a quality that seeped into me in the city I lived in for most of my life”. The middle child of three girls, she was a good, correct student. “I was my teacher’s favourite and also daddy’s pet since I was the youngest in the family for a long time till Vijayta, my younger sister, came along. My elder sister, Bidisha, who is my exact opposite, hated me because I never misbehaved at school!” Still, it was Basu, the local tomboy, who beat up all the children in her locality and was known as ‘Lady Goonda’.

It is difficult to believe that this elegant swan was, some years ago, an ugly duckling of sorts. She chortles at the memory, elaborating, “I am a very nice person and that makes my overall package interesting; in my early childhood I was a round tub. Later, in my teens, my face continued to look the same but I stretched quite a bit. I knew that I was ‘something’ interesting when, in class XI, all the boys proposed marriage!”

Even with her glamorous physicality, Basu has been bagging different roles. She is most excited about playing a simple medical student in Prakash Jha’s Apaharan, a film that focuses on the harsh realities of life in Bihar. “Here, I wear simple salwar kameezes or kurtas and jeans with the minimum of make-up. In fact, I have used only kajal in most of the film. True, for a long time I was stuck with one image,” she confesses. “But now there are new directors coming in who believe in styling so it’s not difficult to try out different roles, something I have always wanted to do.”

John Abraham’s Frames

“Water worked for me in a big way.”

Abraham was the surprise package of Deepa Mehta’s much talked about movie on the ill treatment of widows in India. Following agitations by conservatives in Varanasi, Water was shot on location in Sri Lanka. “I was extremely proud that Deepa Mehta signed me on for the provocative and persuasive film,” says Abraham, who assayed a radically different role. “It is an Indian film in more ways than one. I had to do my homework well and put in a lot of hard work to get my act in order. I played a Gandhian kind of traditional person, bespectacled and dressed in dhotis. I had to get my Sanskrit diction just right.”

“I am not even remotely close to Hollywood.”

The effort paid off…. Rumours filtered home that the actor had been approached by a Canadian agent for Hollywood projects. Abraham remains surprisingly rather tight-lipped about his international presence. “Indians are not yet Hollywood, in the true sense of the word, not even Aishwarya Rai. She has done international cinema,” states Abraham crisply. “I am not living under any false inhibitions nor am I making any false proclamations. Several agents have approached me. I have taken a conscious decision not to move too fast and honestly, I do not feel the need to blow my own trumpet. When things happen they will automatically get noticed.”

“Dhoom gave my career a new lease of life.”

The action film with a young and fun loving unit showcased Abraham as a cool villain. “Abhishek (Bachchan), Uday (Chopra) and I had a blast,” he laughs. “We are all almost the same age…and we did not feel as if we were working together. It was like a picnic. The end result showed how much we enjoyed the experience.”

Bipasha Basu: All outfits, from Gianfranco Ferre’s Fall/Winter 2005-06 collection. Make-up by Vimi Joshi, for M.A.C. Eyes, hush smes, paradisco, navy eyekohl, perwink mascara; cheeks, rule smes, silver dusk highlighter; lips, orangecream pro gloss; skin, moisture feed skin, studiotech. Hair by Madhuri Nakhale.
Retouch artist: Sudhir Gautam.
Styling by Nisha Jhangiani.
Location courtesy: Seijo and the Soul Dish.