Interview With Ileana

Not always does Ileana blow a kiss and perform on stage and when she did for the first time at the Shakti audio release function last week, the crowd went berserk. Performing live gave her a high and she reeled away a few words in Telugu nervously and spontaneously and surprised herself. She usually refrains from speaking the language because she thinks her diction isn’t good and is scared she might say something wrong.

The actress has completed five years in Telugu cinema and continues to be numero uno. Who doesn’t want to wear the crown every Friday but if you set out with the sole purpose of making money, chasing success or a burning desire to stay on the top, focus is lost and you lose track of the goal. “Getting there isn’t difficult but hanging on definitely is,” says the Goan beauty firmly.

Success was offered to her on a platter once, twice but after that she was on her own. She faced embarrassing disasters at the box-office at times and cringed; learnt from her mistakes. Choosing the right script and doing the right role became quite a task and especially for someone who came from a non-filmi background with no godfather, an alien language became a challenge, never a gamble. The actress has beeninspired by a wish to create something unique, something that she can be proud of but has been more talked about for her spectacular hourglass figure and delicate features.

She opines that glamour dolls shouldn’t be taken lightly and they do contribute significant stuff. In her case she always questioned herself before signing a project, “If I were to minus my role, would the film still work, would the film be incomplete without me?” Also the new faces that cropped now and then never bothered her, she always believed that the film industry is a big place, and if one is consistent and contributes something that no actress can, carry off style with panache and attitude then there is no place for heartburn.

The gentle and articulate lady must be quite fatigued of the continuous stream of compliments from fans and strangers on her figure but she knows she can’t take it for granted. She adds, “I thank my genes, I’m aware I’m growing so I work out for an hour every alternate day, try to eat healthy and stay fit. I’ve been fat for most part of my school life.” Recently Ileana was in the news for drawing the highest ever remuneration amongst heroines and was all over the net for making unreasonable demands from the producers. She replies with a cool confidence that she charges what she deserves and opines that if the remuneration is not much of a bother to the producer, he wouldn’t be taking her at all.

Happy and content that she has made her place here, the Lioness is making inroads to Hindi cinema as well but isn’t it a late entry? She had been offered many movies quite early in her career but none have been as interesting as the ones in Telugu, moreover she didn’t want her launch in Hindi to be on a mediocre scale. Ileana says sternly that she will never do an item number and rubbishes the talk of doing one in Kannada. “There was a song written on me and revolving around my name, I just make an appearance as an actress.”

Her current films are 3 Idiots with Shankar, Barfi with Ranbir Kapoor; Shakti and Nenu Naa Rakshasi are waiting to be released. She worked with NTR the second time, she had been offered Brindaavanam, Adhurs, etc., but preferred to do a lighter subject as Rakhi had a serious one. She agrees she is lot more prettier in Shakti and credits the looks, costumes to her mom. Her mother Samira had worked hard on perfecting it. Recently she launched her mother’s boutique ‘Ileana’ at Inorbit Mall.

On Nenu Naa Rakshasi, she reveals that she doesn’t have a role that is chirpy or bubbly but something beautifully scripted which has pushed her to the limits. She describes the film’s captain Puri Jagan as a ‘Star’s Director’.

Ask Ileana if it’s true that a street facing her home in Goa is called Ileana’s Street, she guffaws. She adds, “Our folks have termed it. The road is on the way to my house. Guzaarish was shot there, remember the scene in which Hrithik and Aishwarya are seated in a car, the latter smokes and a lot of coconut trees around, that’s on my way to my place.” Finally ask her why she isn’t amongst the socialites, in the partying and pubbing group at Hyderabad? Simple, she doesn’t like being in a place where there is barely any light, where music is deafening and people keep bumping into each other.