"Voting for the first time was an exhilarating experience" - Amrita Rao 
By Subhash K. Jha, May 2, 2009 - 14:48 IST
Shocking as it may sound, Amrita Rao who has been in two of the most successful films of the decade -Farah Khan's Main Hoon Na and Sooraj Barjatya's Vivah and whose success rate and iconic status is certainly higher than most of her contemporaries, was not asked to be part of the Karan Johar-Tarun Mansukhani's Vote Aapke Haath Mein Hai campaign.
When asked about this surprising omission Amrita laughs away the query. "You'll have to ask them why I wasn't part of it."
Amrita, it would seem, has antagonized the Johar-Chopra's by refusing to do Bachna Ae Haseeno. She was offered the role that Minissha Lamba finally did.
Says Amrita, "I won't say I'm tired of playing the sweet girl next-door who looks at life each day with wide-eyed wonder. But I do crave for a change of image. In my next release Short Cut I play a very glamorous girl. For the first time, I'm being dressed up by Manish Malhotra. That does say something about the characters I've played so far. So yes I declined Bachna Ae Haeseeno. I couldn't relate to the character."
No one says no to a Yash Chopra presentation. Amrita's behaviour was secretly described as "high-handed" and "reckless".
And now she was refused a place among Bollywood's 30-minus icons in Karan Johar's voting-awareness film although everyone from Kareena Kapoor to Ritesh Deshmukh featured in it.
Not that Amrita was brooding over being left out. On Thursday Amrita Rao voted for the first time. So excited was she by the prospect of casting her vote that she reached the polling booth even before the gates had opened.
"At 7 am I was the first voter at the booth in the municipal school in Mahim. I feel so proud of being able to vote for the first time. I keep looking at the black mark on my finger proudly. For years I envied that tell-tale mark on my parents' finger."
Amrita's chosen candidate had to fulfill three prerequisites. "He had to be well-educated, young though not inexperienced, and without a criminal background."
Interestingly she says she attained a voting consciousness from an electorally-galvanizing website jaagore.com.
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