“I know I am 20 years too late but it’s okay. I am aware that meaty, title roles will go to actors with a long track record. I can’t fight long-held reputations.”

“I wanted to see if I could do it. I have never anchored a show; I am always at the other end doing all the talking. Will I be able to listen?”

Five years ago, she lit up the silver screen with her seductive turn in Zubeida. Today, Lillete Dubey has reinvented traditional sister, bhabhi and mother roles with her irreverent wit and risqué humour. Preparing to stage a comeback to television with her debut chat show and all geared up to make her first feature film, the late entrant to Bollywood shares personal moments with Nupur Mahajan Sinh

The last time I met her for an interview was five years ago, when Zubeida was the hot, just released film and she, the new find. I’d known Lillete Dubey, the theatre person, for a while and often reviewed her plays but as the newest actor to hit the marquee – that too one who wasn’t a just bloomed Miss India or another chip off a familiar filmi surname variety – she was an object of curiosity. I vividly remember the headline – ‘Lillete, The Late Bloomer? – a fact she had laughingly concurred with.

Little wonder then that five years on, ‘the late bloomer’ is yet not in full bloom and is laughing just as heartily. As each petal unfolds, she releases a burst of new creative energy – a brand new production, a refreshing dimension to an otherwise abused role or then she unleashes a Dubey Jr. For Lillete, infancy was in her 20s, adolescence in her 30s and now that she’s just stepping into adulthood, there’s yet time aplenty ahead to blossom.

“I am an anachronism in the film world,” she claims nonchalantly in her husky voice that is now a reference point in Hindi cinema. That is one statement everyone that Lillete has worked with in her short-spanned film career will agree with: she has none of the prerequisites of stardom. She’s not hungry. Lillete says that hunger to be a star is the single most cherished value in filmdom. She isn’t vain, the second must-have for any actor. During Zubeida, her make-up artist had a tough time gluing her to her seat! She refuses to be typecast and most importantly, she doesn’t have an iota of delusion about herself.

“I know I am 20 years too late but it’s okay. I am aware that meaty, title roles will go to actors with a long track record. There is a slew of ladies out there with 30-year-track records, established actors who still look great. I can’t fight long-held reputations. The residuary roles are not really substantial but in those, I look for diversity.” It is a fact that in the narrow niche left for her she experiments and never fails to surprise her directors and her audiences. We have loved her as Aunty Rose (Zubeida), the weepy Punjabi mummy Pimmi, (Monsoon Wedding), the kajal-spewing mum (Gadar-Ek Prem Katha) and Jaswinder Kapoor, the risqué sister (Kal Ho Naa Ho).

Make-up by Fiona Caroline, specialist for Dior. Hair by Homai Sheikh for Juice. Clothes: Brown and yellow top and green layered tunic, both by Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, for Cue, at 7 Best Marg.