Sameera plays rustic woman in Kukunoor's 'Yeh Hausla'

By Subhash K. Jha, Mumbai, Jan 2 : Glamorous Sameera Reddy says she connected with the late Smita Patil's spirit while playing a rustic Dalit woman in Nagesh Kukunoor's 'Yeh Hausla', walking bare feet in the mud in ghagra-choli with peacocks accompanying her. The actress says she finds the comparison with Smita 'uncanny'.

"I never knew I could do these things. And this Smita Patil comparison is getting uncanny. It was Buddhadeb Dasgputa who first compared me with her," Sameera told IANS.

But Sameera, who has featured in films like "Musafir" and "Taxi No. 911", is satisfied with the experience.

"I feel I'm now born as an actor. When people see me in 'Yeh Hausla', I hope they see me and not just Smita Patil.

"While doing 'Yeh Hausla', I felt I was connecting with Smita's spirit. Maybe it was the pure, unspoilt ambience and that whole spirit of 'Chakra' and 'Manthan' that Smita is associated with."

She says her director was a great help.

"Nagesh has taught me so much. I've connected with emotions within myself that I never knew existed. I felt I've gone to acting school. Other actors came and went. But I was there for the full 47-day schedule. I'm in every frame of the film," said Sameera.

She has shot on the outskirts of Jodhpur in Rajasthan with peacocks for 46 days for the film.

"Where I shot with Nagesh was a different world completely without trappings of urban life. I felt I had gone back to basics. I was in a ghagra-choli walking bare feet in the mud and these peacocks would accompany me everywhere. I've never been so close to nature before. And the thought of flying off to Bangkok for my next film gives me strange feeling of cultural dislocation." Sameera is going to Singapore to do a new Priyadarshan comedy.

The Kukunoor film came Sameera's way almost by default. Kukunoor had heard Dasgupta comparing Sameera to Smita Patil after working with her in two films - "Kaalpurush" and "Ami, Yasin Ar Amar Madhubala".

When he offered her the role, John Abraham told Sameera to grab it with both hands.

"He (John) also told me to do it at one stretch. I realised, it was the only way to play this character. I didn't return to Mumbai even for a day."

When the release of Kukunoor's "Aashayein" featuring John got delayed, the director didn't waste time. Off he went to Jodhpur for a start-to-finish one stretch shooting of "Yeh Hausla".

--IANS