'Fashion is very me'

Koena Mitra may have sizzled on the big screen several times, but she knows she is a ramp scorcher first and everything else next. “Fashion is very me. I have very vivid and nostalgic memories of the ramp. Modelling has only smoothened my transition from a model to an actress,” says Koena Mitra, who was in City for a premium fashion event.

She says prefixes like ‘sexy’, ‘seductive’ and ‘hot’ egg her on to do the best in the diverse and challenging roles she performs across the various media.

Her recent appearance in a song sequence in Aiyan has topped the music charts. She has just completed shooting an English film entitled Karna where she plays the role of a village damsel born with supernatural powers. The story traces how the girl deploys the powers she is equipped with.

Koena confesses that action and fight sequences thrill her. She has trained in Thai Chi, Judo, and has spent hours training in underwater diving and fighting for an international film. “I would like to replicate the same in a Hindi movie some day. But would the audience accept a girl doing sharp, quick and incisive fight sequences just as well or even better than a man would do?” she wonders.

She says if someone would ever come forward to produce such a movie, she would grab the role without a second thought. “Performing comedy and negative roles are particularly challenging and thoroughly excite me,” she observes.

Koena wonders when Indian cinema will grow out of the family drama and Romeo and Juliet genre of scripts and turn more towards boy bashing and even chick flick themes. “The Indian mindset is trained to accept such movies and I guess it will be a while before we receive a movie of a different kind with open arms,” she says.

Koena says in real life, she is a reticent person. She’s not a jabber box and would rather spend her time thinking about her roles. She houses seven dogs and says they’re her stress busters.

She thinks that South Indian technicians are among the best she has seen so far. And she admires thorough professionalism of Hollywood directors and technicians but she says she wouldn’t leave her country and look for name and fame on foreign shores. This is where I was born and this is where I belong,” she says.

Koena is open to acting in South Indian movies provided the role and script are impressive enough.