Himmatwali South siren Tamannaah Bhatia outlines her ground rules for working in Bollywood Lipika Varma

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Himmatwali

South siren Tamannaah Bhatia outlines her ground rules for working in Bollywood

Lipika Varma

Tamannaah Bhatia who is cast opposite Ajay Devgn in Himmatwala says she was a kid when she debuted in the Bollywood film, Chand Sa Roshan Chehra in 2005. "But," as she admits, "I received such good offers from Tollywood that I opted to work there. However, the offer from Vashu Bhagnani was too good to refuse so I came back to Bollywood after a hiatus of eight years."

Asked about comparisons with the original Himmatwala that had Sridevi in the lead, Tamannaah replies, "Sajid [Khan] who has written the film has been its guiding force. But, having said that, the characters are different in this remake, which has been my best break. Ajay is a street fighter for one and as far as equating me with Sri --- I could never come close to her calibre."

Talking about the fact that she’s acted in a lot of remakes --- the Tamil remake Kandean Kadhalai from Imitiaz Ali’s Jab We Met; the Tamil remake Chiruthai from S.S. Rajamouli’s Vikramakudu and now the Hindi remake of the film Himmatwala --- Tamannaah says, "It was not planned. I don’t want to be tagged a remake queen. As an actor you want to try and do all kinds of movies and get into all kinds of roles.  Since a role has been done by someone earlier, there is a lot of emphasis on trying to do it differently and that is what I try and instinctively follow."

Tamannaah says she avoids doing steamy scenes. "I have worked with stars like Surya, Vijay, N.T.R. Junior and Ram Charan. I have my boundaries and I am not bothered about the consequences. I will not wear a bikini and I will not do kissing scenes. I will continue to do what I’m comfortable with."

Working in any language does not pose a problem for Tamannaah. "I am a greedy actor," she confesses adding, "I’ve always wanted to act. But I believe acting is a universal profession. We should all be open to doing films from Tollywood, Hollywood or Bollywood. For us it’s the kind of films we do that matter."

When questioned about her concept of love, the actress says, "It has to be perfect, crazy and passionate. I have been through puppy love in school --- it was my friend’s brother." And as for the future, Tamannaah says that her next film is with Akshay Kumar and is being produced by Tips. "But I haven’t made an official announcement as yet because I have a lot of scripts to read and a lot of offers. So, I’m taking my time before making any statement," she says.