Koena Mitra's journey from Bollywood to Hollywood

Actress Koena Mitra was absent from the Bollywood scene for over a year but the dusky babe has no regrets about it at all. Refuting the ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ theory, Mitra says that she was stationed in Los Angeles, not for a vacation, but to pursue a career in Hollywood!

And now that she’s bagged the title role in the Holly-flick, Story of Naomi, she’s over the moon, literally! Mitra will be sharing screen space with well known Hollywood actor Kevin Sorbo and she says that working with him was an absolute delight. Talking about her career in H land, the ex model insists that it is not easy to bag projects there.

“Hard work is extremely important to succeed there. Without that, one cannot reach anywhere. In Bollywood, once an actor becomes a fairly established name, he or she usually starts taking things for granted. But out there, artists realise that the amount of hard work you put in should multiply once you are famous,” says Mitra .

The actress says that of all the things, she is happy to have imbibed the work culture from the West. Ask her if she didn’t face any hardships, being an Indian face, and Mitra says that breaking barriers is never an easy task.

“What I noticed, is that the filmmakers there are used to Indian female actors presenting them with a long list of restrictions, even before they land themselves any role. My only condition was that I will not indulge in any unnecessary show of skin,” says the actress.

Also, what worked in her favour, according to Mitra is her international looks. In fact, the actor says that she was instructed not to make appearances in a sari, ever!

“And they were right — they explained to me that if I draped the sari, I would be slotted as an Indian face. And when I would wear western outfits, people would get confused about my nationality. So diverse looks is a must to get work out there,” she says analytically.