'My secret wish is to be the Prime Minister of India'

GN: What is your role in the Sa Re Ga Ma HMV Production Karma Confessions and Holi?

DP: With Karma Confessions and Holi I have started spreading my wings in the West. I won the offer because I am a Sa Re Ga Ma artist. Sa Re Ga Ma brought out my first album Baby Doll and I am bound by a contract with them.

In Karma Confessions and Holi there is no first lead, second or third lead. It deals with a story, which starts one morning and ends the next. It is a situational drama, which also has shades of comedy.
It is essentially about healthy relations. In life, some relationships upgrade, some degrade. I play a bubbly Gujarati girl called Preeti who is fun-loving.

A dignified and smart girl who goes to the US from India. I am linked with Chandan, who is a 16-year-old NRI kid.

The role that I play is that of a lighthearted string operator. Because of my character there is a twist in the story which is a major turning point of the film.

GN: How was it working for Karma Confessions and Holi, a film by Drena de Niro?

DP: Drena and I became jewellery sisters because she loves Indian jewellery and I promised her I'd send some.

It was very baffling to watch the co?producer behaving like any one of us. When I donned the garb of an actor, I was very friendly with her 2-year-old son Leo, who people used to tease as my boyfriend.

Rena as a co'producer and as an actor went out of her way to help artists; she indeed is a very benevolent lady.
 
GN: Tell us something about your experience in working with international supermodel Naomi Campbell.

DP: Naomi is just so opposite to what the media portrays her to be. I remember while we were shooting the Holi song, we were not introduced to each other that day. But my co'producer David Roma told me that Naomi was speaking very highly of me since she found me to be very talented and pretty.

The day I was introduced to her, she treated me like a friend. We shot some of the scenes with so much ease and comfort that I did not realise that I was shooting with Naomi Campbell, a stunningly gorgeous woman and beautiful human being. Naomi was a sheer delight to watch.
 
GN: How did you find working on the same film alongside Sushmita Sen in an international project?

DP: I was the youngest of the lot in the unit and quite pampered. Sush is a warm lady with a very regal air. At the same time she has a very childlike innocence too.

During the shooting of Karma Confessions and Holi I got to see that side of her. From little things like threading my eyebrows to adjusting my necklace and shooting the scenes with her, Sush was a very helpful lady, just like an elder sister.

Whenever she is around, her presence is so charming that it lights up the entire atmosphere.

She is a natural and disciplined actress. Since I dreamt of being in this industry when Sush had won the crown, it was like a dream come true when I got to work with her.

The whole world knows she is a woman of substance, but for me her sheer simplicity was very heart-warming

GN: What kinds of roles do you look forward to?

DP: It has been a learning experience for me to grow as an actress step by step from Kalyug to Karma Confessions and Holi. It is sad that though I had a good role in Hriday Shetty's Daag, the film had to be shelved.

As an actor, I am not keen on the length of the role but the impact that my role can leave to enable me to prove my versatility as an actor.

It is precisely for this reason that I would never accept a role in a film in which I have to just stand in a corner and end up as a glorified extra doing nothing concrete as far as my characterisation is concerned.

Also I feel that it is not important for an actor to identify with the character that he or she is playing or being what you are, because you get paid only to act.

GN: What are your hobbies besides your profession?

I am too impassioned about things. Not many are aware of the fact that I am a trained Indian classical dancer, but chose to opt for acting as a career because I am too glamour'struck to act.

I have made my hobbies too a part of my profession by choosing to take up hobbies, which complement me and help me in my career because I believe that experience is your best teacher.

I like to read a lot of newspapers because they open a galaxy of world events and influence you and enable you to touch a million lives.

GN: How interested are you in writing?

DP: I like to write. In my spare time I try to write my anecdotes about different people whom I observe in my day'to'day life. I also dabble in writing a lot of poems and am in fact seriously thinking in terms of coming up with a book of poems shortly.

I also intend to write scripts for films during my spare time. When you are acting, you do not use your mind because you have got to be a baby and just follow what your director tells you in order to be in sync with your character.

When I set out to face the camera, I believe in the lie that you are not you but some one else altogether.

GN: What else do you try to do these days?

DP: I am also trying to learn the art of making soaps and candles. I also want to come up with an album because as I said earlier I am a trained classical singer.

In fact when I was just 13, I actually wanted to come up with an album. That was long before Baby Doll happened and after doing the two music videos ' Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar and Rangeela Re, I became a known name.

The thing is I am always restless because I think I am a very pro'active person who likes to make things happen all the time.

I am also raring to direct a film. However I do not want to end up being called the Jill of trades but not the mistress and hence I do not see the possibility of coming up with an album or taking up direction in the near future.

I would rather concentrate on my career as an actor. In fact I have been signed by a big maker but wouldn't like to divulge details of the project until the official announcement comes across.

GN: Describe yourself a little more.

I have always been a very happy soul because I feel it is so boring to be sad. I feel that if you cannot differentiate between happiness and sorrow, you will always remain happy.

My biggest plus point is that I love talking, though some may think that it is my biggest minus point. By the way, not many are aware of the fact that I also happen to be a graduate in psychology.

GN:What is your secret wish?

DP: My secret wish is to become the Prime Minister of India one day because I want to help make society much better than what it is now and to do that you need to be vested with power.

I like putting to use the person that I am even now when I am not the Prime Minister but just an actor.