Tamannaah Bhatia
Tamannaah Bhatia

There is a new ‘Naino Mein Sapna‘ girl in the town. Making Bollywood as her home and pretty much in the thick of affairs, Tamannaah Bhatia has entered the ‘masala entertainer‘ zone with ‘Himmatwala‘. A top heroine down South and now re-entering the Bollywood arena, Tamannaah is already making her presence count with another film already signed with Akshay Kumar. While there is still some time before that film goes on floors, Tamannaah is keeping herself overtly occupied with the promotional drive of the Ajay Devgn starrer which is all set to hit the screens this Friday.

Fun, masti, dhamaal – Is there all of this and more that one should expect from ‘Himmatwala’?
Yeah, this is Sajid Khan’s ‘Himmatwala‘ so you can just imagine what kind of made fun would be in there. Comedy is an extremely hard genre to crack and this is something which is Sajid’s forte. The films that he has made in the past have been out and out comedies. Now with ‘Himmatwala’, he is adding drama into the narrative. Outcome is a good family entertainer which is very interesting. If he has said on the posters that the film is a ‘Sajid Khan entertainer’, he means it because the film has been made from the audience perspective and what they would enjoy.

You seem to be pretty thrilled with the fact that Sajid was at the helm of affairs. Guess his conviction rubbed upon you?
See, every film is a calculated gamble but when the team is strong, your confidence level goes up. I know that it is so difficult to be consistent in this industry. However, Sajid has been consistent as a director. In fact once I came on board, I checked out the original ‘Himmatwala’ for the first time. I wanted to see what excited Sajid to make it. He is someone so obsessed with the film; he has seen it 36 times in theatres. Somehow his conviction really made me believe in the film.

‘Himmatwala’ is one story where other than the central protagonist, even a girl has an important role to play in the scheme of things. Has that turned out to be the case in the remake as well?
Absolutely. There is a proper character graph maintained for me in the film. In fact the moment my introduction takes place on screen, there is a clear indication to audience around what I would be up to. Sajid has done everything in the film’s structure to portray me in the right light by bringing in the right nuances. I am happy with the way the film has shaped up.

While one waits to see that, at least the song and dance routine has pretty much signified the arrival of yet another quintessentially Bollywood leading lady.
Well, down there in South, dance is considered as a very important part of a girl’s profile. Why just a heroine, even for heroes there is a lot of dancing involved there. Moreover, the steps are really difficult too. Since I don’t have any formal experience in acting and dance, South was a great place to learn a lot.

Based on what has been unveiled so far, I am sure that feelers from Bollywood must have already started coming in/
I am happy with the way people have responded on screen so far and I hope people do enjoy. Other than the film with Akshay Kumar though, I have not spoken about any other film. I should be doing more films though but let ‘Himmatwala’ release first, announcements will follow (smiles).

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

Check This Out