Mallika seeks love on Koffee with Karan 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, February 21, 2007 - 14:24 IST
Karan loves to serve his coffee ‘hot’… and the next episode promises to be ‘piping hot’! His first guest is saucy, sexy and sensational… She is the
unofficial brand ambassador of the show, having been mentioned in practically each and every episode of the last season! This Sunday, meet the
quote-a-minute, bold and brash, Mallika Sherawat.
Karan’s second guest is one of the finest filmmakers in Bollywood… a man behind
many-a-masterpiece and Karan’s favorite director, meet Sanjay Leela Bhansali only on Koffee with Karan. Watch this unusual combination
together for the first time, in an exciting and entertaining tête-à-tête, this Sunday, February 25th at 9 p.m. on Star One and Star World!
Excerpts from the interview
Karan:Welcome to Koffee with Karan!!!
Mallika: Thanks!
Karan: So you are finally on the show. Everyone used to ask me when are you getting Mallika Sherawat on the show?
Mallika: I’ve provided enough entertainment for Koffee with Karan. I’ve been made fun of… been ridiculed!
Karan: No! No! That’s not what used to happen!
Mallika: Of course! That was it! You think I don’t know!
Karan: (Laughs)
Mallika: No harm! I’m sitting here and as Robert De Niro said, “You didn’t knock me down! I’m still standing!”
Karan: You were always the option when we asked the men, who was the sexiest woman they thought.. The answer was always you! You think you
were a safe option for them?
Mallika: I think I am a woman who dared!
Karan: Oh really?
Mallika: Yes! Probably that’s why the answer… but I take it as a compliment.. as a big compliment…
| "I genuinely haven’t met a man who doesn’t believe that women are
superior to men" - Mallika |
Karan: Now you are so sensational Mallika! You always have a 100 things to say. Your quotes are just fabulous! I just said you are ‘dial-a-quote’ or
‘quote-a-minute’. Where do you get such sensational things to say? Where do they come from?
Mallika: I think it’s my Haryanvi mind working overtime.
Karan: Is it really?
Mallika: Yes! I think we are in an attention-seeking business! We’re in the times of instant gratification. The very fact that you are sitting here in front of me and
you remember my quotes… That says something… doesn’t it?
Karan: Of course I remember your quotes... They’re fabulous… completely fabulous… and they’re sensational! Do you feel you are making these comments to be
sensational? Do you want to say these things to be noticed? And this is the only way to do it?
Mallika: See, in the beginning when I came to Bollywood I started with a big zero! That’s where I came from. To have no Bollywood connections, no friends in
Bollywood, not even an acquaintance, I think that was a good position to start! “Zero”. Where I knew that I do not know anything. I opened myself to people who I
thought knew. From some I learnt… from some I didn’t. But one thing I want to say… When I did Murder… I want to ask you this...when I did Murder, initially the
aristocracy of Bollywood and the rest of Bollywood kind of looked down upon me. Why do you think this is the case?
Karan: I don’t think that’s true! I don’t think they looked down upon you. I don’t think you were considered ‘A’ league at that point of time by the bigger film-makers
or bigger people. I think today you’ve made a special place for yourself. I think you’ve done it on your own terms. Initially you wouldn’t be considered by the A-league
film-makers but today maybe you would be! Because of the kind of positioning you got yourself into. But initially how would you have expected to be?
Mallika: Murder is the biggest hit of the year!
Karan: Was it?
Mallika: Yes! It was the biggest hit of 2004!
Karan: You know it was a sexy film… and it had a sexy vibe. After that you got noticed because you were daring and you did very well and you weren’t apologetic
about it. And that’s what everyone liked about you… Everyone! You told me all these leading actresses who used to wear polo necks and cover themselves up are now
showing everything!
Mallika: Exactly what has happened! Have they gone through my wardrobe? I think they’ve stolen my wardrobe!
Karan: You think that’s happened?
Mallika: All these actresses were prancing around in polo necks and skirts hanging below their knees and now they’re hanging around in next to nothing. I have
been dethroned!
Karan: What’s your plan of action now? Are you planning to cover up now? Is that what you plan?
Mallika: Well I’m still here next to you and I don’t plan any such thing!
Karan: Of course darling… You don’t look like you plan to cover up anything!
Mallika: I just plan to do my work… Honestly! Initially also I just played my characters which were required to have a certain kind of honesty. If a character is
required to be sexy and glamorous I did that and if a character is required to be a girl next door… a plain Jane.. as in “Pyaar Ke Side Effects,” I did that as well with
utmost honesty.
Karan: And you did very well in that film, I must say. I saw it and I thought “fabulous” and everyone actually said “Guess what? Mallika Sherawat can actually act!”
Mallika: You know Karan, what happens is, “Glamorous actresses like me suffer from a stereotype. People all have this perception that if she’s glamorous, she
has a good body and she is sexy and on top of that, if she shows it… She cannot Act!” Now this is not only in India, even in Hollywood… actresses suffer from a
stereotype. Charlize Theron had to do a monster, put on weight, de-glamorize herself so people took her seriously. Salma Hayek, Charlize Theron and Halle Berry…
they’re all examples of that. And why should we limit it only to actresses… even actors.. before Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Ajay Devgan was completely termed as an
action hero. He was stereotyped like that and then you completely changed the perception!
Karan: Sure! That’s what you are trying to say… that you basically fell out of that perception with Pyaar Ke Side Effects?
Mallika: Yes… There has been a change in perception now.
Karan: Recently I saw it on a show. A critic said that one of the things he learnt in the year was that Mallika Sherawat can actually act! You take that as a
compliment?
Mallika: Well… Don’t you think that’s a dangerous combination? I can act also and I can be sexy also!
Karan: so you are even more dangerous now! Can you be the girl-next-door, Mallika’? Can you really be a girl-next-door?
Mallika: I was in “Pyar Ke Side Effects”. I was!
Karan: But still there was a kind of saucy, sexy vibe that ran through the film.
Mallika: Yes there was! It was appreciated and liked by everyone. But if you want to see a girl next door… Go next door! (Laughs)
Karan: Well that’s true in a sense!
(Sanjay Leela Bhansali enters…)
Karan: What’s really strange, Sanjay… is that you’ll have never interacted before.
Sanjay: Yes… I’m meeting her for the first time!
Karan: This is what people would think… a rather strange combination!
Sanjay: It is! But I’m happy to be on the show because I think she is sensational, sexy and honest!
Karan: And that’s how you like your women?
Sanjay: That’s how all women should be!
Karan: That’s fabulous! On this very show when you came with Aishwarya you had the most amazing things to say about Mallika and that’s why I felt this would be
a wonderful combination.
Karan: What else can she ask for and when people say things about her and about her being honest and controversial… What do you have to
say about that?
Sanjay: I think… I just said… She is what she is. She doesn’t pretend herself as someone else. She speaks her mind out and to her I want to
say “Kuch to log kahenge… logo ka kaam hai kehna”. You just do what you are doing.. be what you are and keep working!”
Mallika: Very encouraging Sanjay! Thank you so much! You know I must say something. Everyone told me that Sanjay Leela Bhansali is this
intense Guru Dutt kind of director. ..don’t joke with him too much. Be very serious and Karan Johar is extremely sensitive… don’t offend him.. Keep
your mouth shut!
Karan: You can offend us! We won’t mind too much!
Sanjay: We’re used to not feeling like you! And it really doesn’t make a difference!
Karan: Aren’t you seeking love in your life?
Mallika: I want to seek love! Lots of love!
Karan: Love from a man, darling! Not from the masses.
Mallika: Am talking about love from a man, yes!
Karan: There’s never a lonely moment, you want to share?
Mallika: There are lots of lonely moments. I am alone. I live alone in the city. Family is not here. It gets excruciating being lonely. But I have to
learn to deal with it. I genuinely haven’t met a man who doesn’t believe that women are superior to men. The day I meet a man…
Sanjay: But Mallika… Why should a woman be superior to a man?
Karan: Exactly!
Mallika: I somehow have a clinical disorder!
Sanjay: I don’t think you should suffer anymore from it because its important to know that men are women are equal! Men should not say
that women are inferior and women should not think so either..
Mallika: Are both of you’ll ganging up on me?
Sanjay: No!
Mallika: Yes! You are ganging up on me!
| "I think our stars are a little jaded. Post 40 you can’t expect them to
play lovers in a teenage film. It doesn’t make any sense" - Bhansali |
Karan: Ok, genius that you are Sanjay… Don’t you think he’s one, Mallika?
Mallika: I think he’s a genius!
Karan: Yes he totally is a genius! And he loves you and he thinks you’re fabulous! So how come you never thought of casting Mallika, Sanjay?
Sanjay: Uh! It all depends on the role. You don’t cast because you find Mallika Sherawat fabulous! You have to write a script… I write a
script... and if I think Mallika Sherawat fits in then I’ll call.
Karan: Ok! You think you get that a lot, Mallika. People think you are sexy and saucy but you never get considered by the A list directors? You
think that happens?
Mallika: I did a Pyaar Ke Side Effects where you, yourself mentioned that I’ve stepped into good acting and good cinema but I would
also believe that a lot depends on the script and the kind of script a film-maker is writing and if I fit into that script. For example, I believe that I
couldn’t fit into Aishwarya Rai’s role in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam at all. I think I was a complete misfit for that. It all depends on the script and
the role and I’m sure if they think that she fits the bill, they will come to me!
Karan: You think she wouldn’t have fitted into that kind of role?
Sanjay: No!
Karan: You don’t think so.. What kind of role?
Sanjay: We all have our genres. Like I can’t make an action film and I cannot make a comedy…
Karan: I can’t either!
Sanjay: So we have our genres… our own limitations and so does she and so does Aishwarya, so does Rani! We all have our own slots
and we fit in them. Sometimes magically we fit into the right slots. Murder for example was the right film for her and became a big hit! Pyar Ke Side
Effects in the last year. Who is Mallika Sherawat? Does she have a godfather? Does she have anybody backing her? Promoting her? She’s
self-made! And it makes you feel proud of her!
Karan: In a sense… so are you! You also didn’t come from a real background in that sense.
Sanjay: Absolutely! We need to work harder, need to be alert all the time… and that takes up all the energy… but its wonderful spending all
that energy!
Karan: Yes of course that is and your putting in all your energy in your next film with newcomers – Ranbir and Sonam.
Sanjay: Too much energy!
Karan: And how’s that going? The experience with Sanwariyan?
Sanjay: Absolutely beautiful. They are beautiful kids! They’re new so you are as excited as much as they are and as a director I have
become more alert because I need to watch every nuance, which they present. So far I’ve worked with the great Abhishek Bachchan or the fabulous
Aishwarya and Rani, or Salman Khan or Shah Rukh Khan but these people are a total new experience. I’m watching carefully. I’m growing as a
director with them. I’m enjoying it immensely. There are no date hassles. There’s a new freshness on the screen. They’re so beautiful to look at. I
think our stars are a little jaded.
Karan: Your finding them looking jaded these days?
Sanjay: And post 40.. they can’t.. you can’t expect them to play lovers in a teenage film. It doesn’t make any sense. These people bring in a
lot of freshness… a lot of hope…
Karan: You feel these younger kids you are launching fresh talent.. You think they’ll being in energy and a new breed of talent.
Sanjay: Absolutely! They have inherited the legacy of Raj Kapoor and Anil Kapoor! It’s exciting to see the parents… when you see Neetuju
and Rishiji.
Karan: How excited they are!
Sanjay: They’re absolutely excited! There’s a spark in their eyes! They’re waiting!
Karan: They’ve given you their babies!
Sanjay: It’s an absolute honour and I’m making this magnum opus with them and half of them feel I am crack because I am putting in so
much… but I love the film.. I love them.
|
Will KBC & Koffee follow Karan & Samir Nair into NDTV?
