Bipasha Basu, who describes herself as “fiery and forthright” has shot down “blind stories” of an unsavoury event related to her on the set of Sajid Khan’s Humshakals, saying no one can “mess around” with her.
There were rumours that director Khan had made an “indecent proposal” to Basu during the filming of Humshakals — a movie she had stepped back from promoting prior to its release as she was unhappy with the outcome. But the actress dismissed the rumour.
Setting the record straight, Basu said: “A lot of unsavoury stories are going around about what happened during the shooting. I’ve been reading blind stories about some terrible situations that happened during Humshakals.
“Let me set the record straight. No such thing happened. These are completely false stories. I’m not the kind of girl anyone can mess around with. I’m fiery and forthright and I don’t take bulls**t from anyone.
“I don’t know which heroine in Humshakals had to face this. It didn’t happen to me. Nobody would dare to behave badly with me. I know how to protect myself.”
Humshakals, directed by Khan, also featured Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor, Esha Gupta and Tamannaah Bhatia apart from Basu.
Moved to tears
She says the movie “really rattled me”. “I felt I didn’t deserve this. For the first time, during a shooting I came home and cried to my mother.”
On her rapport with Khan, Basu said: “The rapport was zero. I shut myself down. I did what I was instructed to on the sets. That’s it.”
While Basu had decided not to promote the movie before its release, Saif too disowned the film, but after its release.
Talking about Saif’s move, Basu said: “What was the point? Yes, Humshakals was a bad experience for me. But not for the reasons some media reports are whispering about. No one ever takes advantage of me. I don’t allow it. I won’t allow it. It’s not in my nature to take bad behaviour quietly or to hush it up. If something ugly were to happen, I’d shout about it from rooftops.”
Basu added that Humshakals was the biggest mistake of her career. “I’ve said this before. I am saying it again. I had no clue what I was doing in the film. I was doing a film without a script and role. Even though I knew such comedies are driven by the male characters, I still took it on hoping there would be some substance to my role,” she said.
No substance to role
In the film, she was paired with Deshmukh. She didn’t mind not being paired with Saif as she “just wanted to bring a solid quirkiness” to her part. But that didn’t happen.
“I was miserable just standing around in every frame trying to figure out what I am supposed to do. I was always there on sets, doing nothing,” said the actress, who has her business manager to blame for the fiasco.
“I always follow my own instincts about the roles I should do. This time I listened to my business manager. I never listen to managers. She told me it would do my career a lot of good to do Humshakals. It was a big lesson for me. I should always listen only to my heart.”
Basu’s new film Creature 3D has hit the screens. She says she’d rather be a part of films such as this thriller, where she has a “definite and concrete part to play”.
