I'm intelligent enough to realise that at least 50 per cent of my success in films is because of my looks.

Every few years, I press the erase button on my past, so I can go forward unencumbered.

Keen on showcasing her real acting abilities, she extended herself beyond her familiar 'torrid' terrain with films like Apaharan, Corporate and Omkara.... And yet, sultry star, Bipasha Basu, admits unabashedly that she loves all the song and dance that unerringly pulls in the whistling crowds. Madhulika Varma picks a diva's brains.

The JW Marriott…Room 385…. They're dressing up a Diva. That's why it looks like a hurricane just blew over. There are dresses - mountain heaps of them - lying around on the beds. And shoes - to beat the Imelda Marcos collection and hairpieces and other bling-bling stuff. So, there's standing room only.

Down by the dresser, the make-up lady is giving the Diva a 'face'. Everyone's holding their breath as she carefully picks out brushes and paints in mysterious dark shadows and sensuous highlights onto a near perfect face.

Down below, the azure blue ocean sings a gentle serenade.

Suddenly, the reverie is broken as the 'Diva' picks up a tweezer and begins plucking fiercely at hair on her upper lip, exclaiming, "Oh God, look at the big muchhees I've got! You can see them a mile away! Such big, big muchhees! ('moustache' for those not in the loop).

It startles her make-up woman who protests feebly, "Baby, you're going to make your upper lip sore with all that plucking!" Her handiwork disturbed, she begins afresh, stroke by gentle stroke....

Meet Bipasha Basu, the down to earth Diva! Actually she has a problem with the word 'Diva'.

She thinks of Divas as rather aloof and eccentric beings, locked away in their ivory towers, hurling abuse and stones at anyone who dares to cross their 'moat'.

"Me, I'm so down to earth and normal," she laughs.

I quirk a brow and cast a glance around the room at the 'intensely material world' laid out before us, with five people on standby duty for her shoes, hair, etcetera.

She catches on; smiles, "Yeah, sometimes, I'm made to look like a Diva. But that's really a very thin veneer. Beneath it all, I'm your everyday woman."

She is. All silk and steel. Self-made. For someone who left home at 16 after just seven days of college, she's honestly come a very long way.

That's why she has great respect for women who've made it on their own. Her favourite these days is Rakhi Sawant on Bigg Boss. "She's such an original,'' laughs Basu. She loves her spunk - like that nagin dance she did - strictly for a cow and the filmi, coy glances she casts at Amit! "Beneath that crusty exterior there's such vulnerability - I just love it that the code word for her is Bips!'' Basu declares happily.

The other guy she just adores is Ravi Kishen, the Bihari dude on the show. She enjoys how he holds forth on the entire world with his razor sharp critique. "What was that dance number that he did?'' she laughs. "Sajna hamar ghagra remote se uthab" - what unique imagery. Was there ever such a song, or did he make it up on the spot?" she asks incredulously.