'I cut vegetables and washed clothes and utensils as part of Aparna Sen's workshop'

Raima Sen tells Jyothi Venkatesh that if she had a figure like that of her mother, she too would have sizzled in a bikini.

She is one of the finest actresses around in showbiz today but she is yet to get her due, because unfortunately for her, for quite some time, though she has been receiving praises for her performances in a few films, especially Rituparno Ghosh's Choker Bali, sadly success has been eluding her. Raima Sen however is undaunted. When I meet her for this interview at her producer Ekta Kapoor's office, on the eve of the release of her flick C KKompany, Raima quips, "A hit determines how popular you are as an actress at the box office. However for me, films like Honey Moon Travels Private Limited, Parineeta and Choker Bali are hits, because my potential as an actress was exploited by all these films".

Raima is now quite eager to get into the commercial slot. As she succinctly puts it, "I have been unfortunately bracketed as an arty actress who can do only serious roles. Just wait and watch out for me. This year with my slew of releases like C KKompany, Mere Khwabomein Jo Aaye and Meridien, I will be able to prove that I am no less as a commercial actress too."

Raima plays the romantic interest of Tusshar Kapoor in Ekta Kapoor's C KKompany, which has been directed by debutante Sachin Yardi. "I play the role of a dietician in the film. It is ironical that in real life, I am a 100 per cent foodie. I am not at al a fitness freak in real life. I make it a point to go to my gym to work out only as and when I have the time. I do yoga once in a while though because I find it quite de-stressing."

Mithun Chakraborty has been cast in a very pivotal role in C KKompany. When I quiz Raima whether she is playing the role of the daughter of Mithun Chakraborty, she clarifies that she is essaying the role of his sister, and not daughter. Raima adds. "I would not say that it is a challenging role as an actress for me. I took it up only because I am tired of seeing myself in serious roles and wanted to prove that I can also do hard core commercial comedies."

Raima is of the opinion that comedies work these days and asserts that Tusshar is well known for his comedy roles after he won accolades for his performances in films like Golmaal and Kya Kool Hai Hum. "Working with Tusshar has been a great experience. I keep on instigating Tusshar in the film by telling him that he is a loser and a darpok though his name in the film is Akshay Kumar."

Raima says that it was wonderful working with a co-star like Tusshar and a director like Sachin Yardi. "While Tusshar made me feel comfortable since C KKompany is his home production, Sachin kept in telling me to exaggerate my actions and be louder. I found Sachin, who has a great sense of humor very sweet and at the same time quite disciplined. Frankly, I was not at all aware of the fact that Sachin had actually assisted Madhur Bhandarkar in films like Page 3 and Traffic Signal earlier. I felt funny for the first two days, because I have always tried to underplay my characters whereas Tusshar has always been loud and needs to be controlled or else he tends to go over the top".

Raima confesses that she does not bother to do any home work before she comes to the sets and switches on as an actor only when she is told 'action' and when the 'take' is over, she is in once again back in her own world. "I admit I used to feel like I am a misfit and an outsider earlier in Bollywood. However now I am happy to find myself to be a part of the system. I think I have come on my own as an actress after I acted in Honey Moon Travels, though I concede that Choker Bali was the turning point in my career".

Aparna Sen's Japanese Wife in which she shares screen space with Rahul Bose is one film which Raima looks forward to eagerly. "I play the role of a widow who has an eight year old boy. Aparnadi (that's what Raima calls Aparna Sen affectionately) is a tough task master and insisted that I undergo a fifteen days workshop before I started shooting for her film just to enable me to get into the skin of the character. Aparna Sen did not conduct the workshop which was held at Konkana Sen Sharma's house, where, believe it or not, as part of her workshop, I even had to cut the vegetables, wash all the household clothes and the utensils in the kitchen and also make the bed every day, though I had never entered the kitchen in my house both before the workshop and also after it".

If in Japanese Wife, Raima is playing the mother of an eight year old boy, in Madhureeta Anand's Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye, she plays a frustrated wife who is the mother of a nine year old daughter. "In Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye, I play a housewife who is also a singer. Randeep Hooda plays my romantic interest in the film. To get into the skin of my character in the film, I learnt lesions to play the harmonium and also sing. It was not tough at all to play the mother because in real life, I bond with kids a lot and playing with them gives me a real high."

Raima insists that contrary to the media reports linking her to Randeep Hooda, she is not into any relationship with him. "I am very amused by these reports because Randeep is perhaps the only leading man of mine with whom I have not exchanged even my phone number at all and we bumped into each other only as and when we shot for the film, and not otherwise."

Raima's mother Moon Moon Sen had no qualms at all to appear in a sizzling bikini. Why do we not get to see her also in a bikini? I ask her. Pat comes the reply, "If I also had a figure like that of my mother Moon Moon had in her hey days, I would also have had absolutely no qualms at all to flaunt myself in a bikini but the truth is I do not have that kind of a figure." (Smiles)

Raima is having quite a few films up her sleeves like the Oriya filmmaker Manmohan Mahapatra's Hindi film in which her co-stars are Rahul Bose and Dia Mirza, Rituparo Ghosh's Bengali remake of the celebrated Bengali hit Nauka Doobi, in which her sister Riya Sen is her co-star, yet another Bengali film Jinder Bandhu with Rituparno Ghosh once again as the director and Jeeshu and Priyanshu Chatterjee as her leading men, besides of course Vinee Mitra's Meridien, in which Abhay Deol and Arjun Rampal are her leading men.