'I am a good comic actress'

Beauty reigns

In the City recently, she spoke to Metrolife about her decision to turn producer, her engagement to Mahesh Bhupati and Bangalore. A Bangalorean, Lara admits that the City has seen a lot of change.

“But I keep coming back and going to my favourite spots and feel that nothing has changed at all,” she says. “But yes, there are new buildings, the airport has moved and the traffic is a nightmare,” she adds. What does she miss about the City? “I miss the coolness. I am not referring to the weather but the people of the City,” she adds laughingly.

Ask her about her engagement and she says, “It is going well and I am glad that I am marrying someone who is also a Bangalorean.” So when is the D-day? “I would love to get married but haven’t found the time,” she says.

As a Miss India herself, she says that the focus of the contest has changed. “I think the focus of the pageant has changed from making beauty queens to making Bollywood actresses,” she says. “If the training programme itself adheres to something else than what it’s supposed to, it is very difficult for people to go out internationally and win,” she adds.

Though she was recently seen in the mega blockbuster film Blue, she says action movies are not something she can do regularly. “I think you can do one really big, good action movie in two years because it really beats you out. I am not saying comedy is any easier though,” she says. And comedy surely seems to be her focus.

“I think I am a good comic actress and it is a skill on its own to have a good comic timing and I have never had to work very hard on it,” she says.

She will next be seen in Don-2 and a comic satire called Chalo Dilli, of which she is also the producer. “I think that women are taking control now because you get fed up of waiting and seeing interesting scripts that you want to do but are not there,” she says.

“The guys have been doing it for quite some time and it was only a matter of time that women followed suit. Chalo Dilli is my first production with Vinay Pathak and we start shooting in November,” she informs.

And how is she finding her new role? “It’s stressful and also exciting at the same time. But I promised myself that I wouldn’t get stressed during my first movie,” she says.