Two years in Mumbai and who has seen Rosa Catalano? It isn't as if you could just walk into a favoured Bollywood watering hole and discover her there, happy as a lark, beautiful to boot and on the arm of Bollywood's stylish 'little prince'. Everyone knows that Saif Ali Khan, the young Nawab of Pataudi and Hindi film's poster boy-turned-actor-to-reckon-with, has this Italian belle stashed away somewhere but have you seen her?

'Somewhere' would be an apartment in Mumbai, furnished with a romantic eye with four poster beds, parquet flooring, free-flowing fabric, prints in pretty pink and many-many candles. Competing with the glow of romance, are the books that we suspect are actually read, lining the walls. Perhaps, they provide an escape from her largely me-myself-and-Saif kind of existence. Not that she is complaining, of course.

Forever grist to the rumour mill, the thirty-year-old's 'coming out' in an ad film with Saif, was enough to set the tabloids off. Is there trouble in paradise? Has the 'chhota nawab' been thrown by her desire to be out there, in your face…well, perhaps, just making a living? Apparently not. The girl just wants her due and is ready to work for it. Romance was never a substitute for hard work though keeping the candles burning on both ends may make it a little uncomfortable for the young lord and master. Looks like he is not complaining though.

She is a sport. We realise that even before she jumps into the marble fountain in a Shantanu and Nikhil, ruched shirt that moulds her to perfection, for the Verve shoot and wets her hair under streams of stone-cooled water on a warm monsoon weekend. Even as our stylist, Nisha, is ready to tear her long locks out as H2O meets couture, Rosa is already redefining Bollywood's under-the-waterfall cliché as we cannot help wondering if this is symbolic of things to come on the big screen.

She is a water baby, having spent her first years at an Italian seaside town, and we see her visibly regain her perky form after a gruelling day gamely shooting without a whimper, under the hot city sun. She loves the outdoors, the beach, the sea and regrettably, this is probably as far as she will get with wind and water in this city.

She does get around though. In her own car, refusing to be chauffeur driven, manoeuvring through the teeming traffic and throwing her limited vocabulary of Hindi swear words at reckless rickshaw drivers. She is unaffected and has a certain nervous charm but she is not nervous about pleasing, although this is the first interview she has ever done. Her attitude is as fresh as her face and a certain angular hardness that the camera captures is not apparent in person, denoting rather her inexperience in front of the lens. She seems already rooted in Indianness, one ankle displaying a silver anklet that she never takes off, not even to sleep. And oh yes, did we mention that she is punctual to a fault, arriving for the shoot ahead of time, minutes before the Verve team!

She comes from Italy but her temperament is Swiss
She was born in Calabria, in Southern Italy, but very soon after, her family moved to Switzerland in order to be able 'to build a house in Italy'. Two months a year were spent in Italy and "It was like recharging because of the sun and sea water. It was an amazing time." Yet, she claims that she could never live there. "Switzerland is punctual, organised. I don't like to wait or come late. Italy is only about waiting. But, I am also like the people from Calabria who are typically 'hard headed'; they stand by what they say. Also, we speak with our hands; Swiss people don't do that." In school though, she felt different, for the most part because she had pasta for lunch instead of the obligatory apple and slice of bread.

She met Saif for the first time in Nairobi
Bitten by the travel bug, Rosa decided to join a Swiss airline but quit in three months finding it too boring. Trying to work out what to do, she got involved with a group in Norway that worked with HIV affected people. "We were supposed to go to Africa but we realised that the money was going somewhere else and so some of us quit the group and went to Kenya on our own. Here, we worked in the slums and orphanages, organising entertainment to raise funds. One year there and I met Saif who had come to Nairobi to do a show. It was very special, the first time we met - I didn't know who he was at all…I don't know if I should say this but I didn't even know he was married." She refuses to divulge any more about that first meeting saying only that they met again after his divorce. "I joined him in Kolkata where he was shooting Parineeta."
She will not speak about Saif's marriage. "It is not for me to speak about his marriage but the situation is clear now - she is happy, he is happy...."

She has always loved children
In fact, for her future, she would want to be creative with children, perhaps teaching yoga to orphans and slum children. Saif's children have a room in their flat that she has 'beautifully' done up for them. "Ibrahim and I play cricket on the roof. Sara sometimes comes with bad feelings and I tell her we are just friends, she does not have to feel bad. We understand each other and sometimes when I am playing the guitar which I have been learning for the last year, she comes to hear me play what little I can." And, yes, between Saif, Ibrahim and Rosa, they can devour a fridge full of Swiss chocolates in no time at all.

She has put down roots in Mumbai
Yoga has helped her do this. "I have been practising it for the last three years and am now learning how to teach yoga at a school in Santa Cruz. I want to learn the whole philosophy behind it. Yoga shapes your mind more than your body." Mumbai never scared her, having hitchhiked around the world and having lived in Kenya. "I lived on my own in Kenya, I used the public transport, I visited areas that even the locals preferred to avoid. Nothing bad ever happened to me - it depends on your attitude, it depends on how you walk, how you carry yourself…." She admits that she loves Switzerland but she left it to escape the cold and in Mumbai she cannot figure out why people prefer to sleep in air-conditioned rooms.
"I don't really spend so much time with people in Bollywood. I spend most of my time on my own…. I like to spend quality time with people and my best friends are in Switzerland. One of my friends came to India and we went to Goa - with no plans, just The Lonely Planet. It was very special.

Saif and she can discuss anything
"We do understand each other very well. We like to talk; we like to do things together. We don't go out often because we just like to be alone, maybe reading to each other. Every night, there are candles lit up in our room. Sometimes we have dinner on the roof with candles, sometimes we dance. I love to cook and can make anything. What I like best is pasta, potatoes and rice.
"I have watched him shoot almost every movie. We were in Australia for three months and I bought myself a bicycle and bicycled all around. I joined hip-hop courses, did boxing…. I love to dance and I wish I could go out dancing more in Mumbai. At home, I like to figure out new dances. I have always loved ballet and I mix up yoga, ballet, Salsa, to trans music. Saif loves dancing but he is too stiff for hip-hop. He is a great actor so he doesn't need to be a great dancer."

She does understand that Saif is a 'prince'
"Of course, there is so much about his background...I love the tradition, that they get so much respect. I am proud because Saif does not just have the title of a prince, he behaves like a prince - always with respect." Does she feel like a princess? "Of course, but then I always felt like a princess."
She has met Sharmila and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. "In London. It was nice. The first time was kind of an interview. But now it is a more relaxed relationship. She is watching football and she knows that I love the game too so she SMSes me about it. I like Saif's father very much; we can talk...."

Parineeta is her favourite film
She loves Saif's performance in Parineeta and finds him 'difficult' when he is involved with a film. "As he gets into a film, every day, he is reading, he is already shooting, already in that character. I have to adjust but it is nice. He reads me the script so that I know the stories of his movies, sometimes I have suggestions. He is very disciplined. He knows every dialogue in advance. I see other actors reading on the sets but he knows the entire script beforehand. As soon as he reads a new script, he knows whether he wants to do it. He knows exactly what he wants to do and how many films he wants to work on." She has never tried her hand at acting but, yes, she may just give it a shot. "I was very comfortable and at ease doing the ad film. Maybe it is going to be a natural progression. And the income will help support the work I hope to do with children."

It was fun walking the ramp at Fashion Week
"I have style, absolutely, but am not dependent on designers. My look is comfortable, feminine, young, groovy. I like energy and a more relaxed, sporty style. I wear jeans but I love dresses more. For me, it is important to feel sexy and look feminine. I have a few funky clothes from Manish Arora.
"I choose my own fabrics for the saris that I wear. They look very different. The second time that I wore a sari, I could drape it on myself. I can dance in one. My younger sister, my mum and I have had a lot of fun wearing them. We took a lot of pictures."

Why her?
"Many times, he looks at me and he finds that I understand a lot about him, even about Bollywood…I bring out the best in him. We understand each other and while sometimes I feel that we are totally opposite, deep down I know that we are the same."