Three long minutes with Asin

It’s a welcome relief talking to Asin. In an industry where the stars are too coy, reserved or diffident, mouthing declarations that they’d rather let their roles do the talking, Asin is a nice change. So, whether it’s wielding the mike to promote her film Housefull 2 at a press conference or giving a one-on-one, she takes interest in answering your questions patiently; never mind that you’ve been given three minutes to ask all your questions (quite a task that!). So, even as director Sajid Khan acted as a rather stringent timer, the actor spoke to DNA, quite unhurriedly. ‘Don’t let him hurry you,” she said, and here’s how the interview unspooled...

Not star struck
Asin plays a lawyer in Housefull 2 and has Rishi Kapoor playing her father. With a huge cast of actors including the likes of veterans Rishi Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty and superstars like Akshay Kumar and John Abraham; one’s bound to get starstruck.

“We are all friends and so I never felt star struck,” she gamely says, before quickly adding that she “cherished acting with the veterans, Chintuji (Rishi Kapoor), Dabooji (Randhir Kapoor), Boman Irani and Mithun Chakraborty.”

“I grew up watching their movies, so the opportunity to see them working first hand was memorable.”

Everything mainstream
Whether it’s Ready or Housefull 2, the Hindi movies she’s been seen in cannot be categorised under intelligent cinema, unlike South Indian films, one concurs. The actor is quick to deny the comparisons.  The question of how sensible or intelligent a film is, according to Asin, “depends on the film.” “You have movies in the south too where the hero is the king and there are the staple five songs et al. So, I can’t say that such films happen only in the North.” That as the case may be, Asin’s focus in choosing films is “mainstream commercial cinema where I get to play protagonists who have emotional content in them.”

Still yes to south films
Busy shooting for Bol Bachchan, Asin hasn’t said her final goodbye to the southern film industry yet. “It has been the parent industry and I literally grown learning all that I know of the art from here,” she enthuses, and so, while she will do South Indian films, she is clear that she “wouldn’t want to be repetitive taking on roles that I have already done.”

Catching up on Malayalam cinema
So, what’s the latest movie she’s watched that’s ‘literally blown her mind away,” we ask, with barely a minute left. “The last movie I saw that really impressed me a lot was Pranayam (Directed by Blessy),” she replies. “It was even more special watching it because I know Anupam (Kher) uncle, Jayapradaji and Lalettan (Mohan Lal), “ she adds with a smile. She reveals that she enjoys watching regional fare and adds, “I keep getting DVDs of Malayalam films; while I can’t visit Kerala that often, my parents do, so they keep getting me DVDs of newly released films.”