Delhi Belly is out soon; and it has created quite a hype with its star cast, unique soundtrack and fabulous looking promo’s. In this lovely interview I speak to one of the female stars Poorna Jagannathan who stars opposite the lush Imran Khan in Delhi Belly.

 

I started by asking Poorna how she made the Journey from Tunisia to Maryland to Bollywood?

My father was a diplomat so every three years, we’d pick up and go to a new country. My schooling was all over the place: Tunisia, Ireland, Argentina, Pakistan, Brazil. My journey as an actor started really late. But when I was about six, I remember meeting Suhasini Mani Ratnam and I just fell deeply, madly in love with her. In fact she invited me to stay over at her place for a night and I think my parents had to drag me back home kicking and screaming a month later. I went to her shoots and I had no idea what she was doing but I think it had an impact on me – I wanted to do exactly what she did. I met Suhasini recently and when I told her who I was, the first thing she said was “I just thought about you this morning!”

Tell the readers of Priya’s Blog a secret about yourself.

Although I find myself stuck in them a lot; I hate wearing high heels.

What book is on your nightstand right now?

There’s nothing except children’s books ever on my stand. We’ve been reading Panchatantra’s to him and those stories are a series of complete non-sequiturs. The moral lessons at the end have nothing to do with the story. So we have a good laugh right before we go to bed.

If there was a role in a book you would like to bring to life on  screen

Mumtaz from “Moth Smoke”. Celebrated Author Moshim Hamid has written one of the most beautifully uncomfortable characters ever.

Who has been your biggest female inspiration and why?

I know everyone says their Mom but check out this great story out. My Dad passed away when my mom was probably 60. Although she’s a traditional South Indian woman, her spirit is vibrant and she always been young at heart. So we asked her if she was open to getting married again and although she was really reluctant, she wasn’t completely dismissive of the idea. Long story short, my sister and I upload her profile onto tamilmatrimony.com and we write to the ONE man above 60 on it. He has absolutely no details except that he lives in Toronto. Turns out he’s the Dad of an old friend of mine, they get married about two months later and they have the happiest marriage I’ve ever seen. She took a leap of faith even though it was not the socially accepted thing to do and she found her bliss. I want to be brave enough to keep doing that with my life. Say “yes” to things even though they might scare me.

Greatest asset

People might say my loyalty. Physically it might be my eyes.

You are a very beautiful woman Poorna. Can you share some health and beauty tips?

Thank you for that compliment! I walk everywhere, I do yoga all the time, I work really hard and I don’t take most things personally.

Can you give any advice to girls who don’t believe in themselves enough whether it be love or success?

Success and love came to me really late in life. For the longest time, I wasn’t ready for either – I had to go through some really painful lessons. But if you ride those lessons out, when good things come your way, you’ll be able to see them with a special clarity.

What can we expect from Poorna in the future?

I belong to a theatre group in NYC called “The Barrow Group”. It’s a school and an acting company and I think you’ll see the best acting NYC has to offer at that place. We have production almost every two months and I’m in a play called “Dinner with Friends” in October.

I would like to thank Porrna for giving me so much time on this interview and for sharing her wonderful thoughts with the readers. You can see Poorna in Delhi Belly, which gets its world premiere at the London Indian Film Festival  (http://www.londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/) it opens worldwide at selected cinemas, on 1st July 2011. Let me know what you think of it.

 

Priya Mulji

 

Pic 1 courtesy – http://www.indicine.com/photogallery/bollywood/actress/poorna-jagannathan/