Sunday, August 17, 2003		In The Spotlight

Perizad has a yen for novelty

PERIZAD Zorabian is the love interest of an aging beau in Subhas Ghai's upcoming Joggers' Park. Getting lost in a multi-starrer is not her cup of tea.

She is the Maya of the hit show Hum Pardesi Ho Gaye. She is the Kajal of Bollywood Calling. She has kissed Rahul Bose on the lips. She has fallen for a man as old as her grandpa. She is the showman's new showgirl. She is Perizad Zorabian.

Excerpts from an interview with Vickey Lalwani:

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. But I lived in New York for four years. I did my MBA from Baruch College. I also did a year and a half at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

After Hum Pardesi..., I was flooded with offers. Almost everyone had liked my character, Maya. But you know the herd mentality of how things generally work in the glamour world. And I didn't want to get straitjacketed into a slot which forces you to be repetitive.

You used to be seen in music videos a lot.

Yes. With Lucky Ali, Aryans and Asha Bhosle. In fact, I had been offered veejaying jobs right from day one. I had almost decided to veejay with Channel V. As fate would have it, it was Christmas break and I couldn't sign the contract. Bollywood Calling happened soon after. So I told them, I would like them to wait for a month. They were unwilling but after a month they approached me again. However, they wanted me to veejay six days a week. If I were to do that, when would I get time to act?

The first ad I did was for Clearsil, shot by Shekhar Kapur after which I went off to New York to pursue my studies. On my return, I did a series of ads for well-known brands like Fair & Lovely, Titan, Ponds, Tanishq, BPL, Closeup, etc.

Interestingly, Joggers' Park is my fifth film. After Bollywood Calling, I also did a film called Bandung Sonota with Pratap Sharma, wherein I played the young Indira Gandhi. It was made in three languages- Chinese, English and Indonesian. After that, I worked in a film called Namaste, which was made by an NRI with Viral Lakhia as the director and Amit Mistry as my leading man. Then I signed Mumbai Matinee directed by Anant Balani. Anant had been assigned the directorial reins of Mukta Arts' Joggers' Park. He recommended me to Ghai. One look at me and Ghai said 'yes'.

Initially even I wondered whether a 23-year-old (myself) could fall for a 65-year-old man (Victor Banerjee), as shown in this film. But later when Anant and Ghai explained the script to me, I was convinced. The entire relationship between Banerjee and me has been portrayed beautifully. There's no physical aspect to it. The bonding is purely emotional, hence much strong than the usual love bonding.

You couldn't avoid that one, could you? I don't know why people are talking about that kiss so much. It's a very nice and soft kiss, not the raunchy kind. See, Rahul plays a 32-year-old guy desperate to lose his virginity; so much so that he can't think beyond sex. In fact, that kiss helps him realise that there's more to love than just sex. I've been offered many films in the recent past which required me to kiss for just the heck of it. But I've refused all of them; the scripts of none of the movies actually needed a kiss.

You bet it was tough. The dancing, for example. Earlier, I had done ballets only. Now I have to gyrate in the typical Hindi film manner. I joined a dancing class. Then I did a brief stint at Kishor Namit Kapoor acting classes. In television, you can hurry up with the things. Here they make you do it again and again until it is absolutely perfect.

I am doing Mahesh Dattani's Morning Raga with Shabana Azmi. Then, I have Tanuja Chandra's Stardust with Rati Agnihotri, Manisha Koirala, Amrita Arora and Simone Singh.

To an extent, yes. But can you guess the enormous learning experience I had while acting with Om Puri and Navin Nischol? True talent is playing different roles. So, the day is not far when I'll do commercial cinema as well. But I wouldn't touch projects where I would get lost in the midst of three heroes and three heroines. After tasting meat, I don't want the bone! — (TWF)