Mumbai, July 6, 2004
ANI
Model-turned-actor Samita Bangargi is on cloud nine
these days and why not she's just back from a 50-day
shooting schedule in London of her latest film Ramji
Londonwale. A remake of the Tamil film Naladamayanti,
Samita is paired opposite Madhavan who starred in
the original also. "It so happened, Madhavan's
wife had seen me in Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai and in the
promos of Shaadi Ka Laddoo. It's she who recommended
me to him. Fortunately the makers liked me and that's
how I was on for the role of Sameera, a NRI girl in
London," she chirps.
Talking about the story, she says "it's about
Ramji, a Bihari cook who ends up in London for work
and in order to protect him from the immigration laws,
a lawyer friend of the family with which he lives
suggests I marry him." Raj Zutshi plays the lawyer
and Samita's fiancé in the film. "Initially
it seems absurd to have your fiancé tell you
to marry another man for convenience who to top it
all is an Anpadh Ganwar but as the film unfolds everything
falls into place", says Samita who calls the
film "a sweet, romantic comedy" directed
by Sanjay Daima, associate director of Lagaan
The actress is even gung ho about working with Madhavan
"who literally guided me throughout the film.
He would sit there observing the monitor even when
he wasn't in the scenes. There was so much to learn
from him since he has done quite a few films with
Mani Ratnam who's considered to be God in the southern
film industry." She adds that this film is a
huge leap for her "from Yeh Kya Ho Raha and Shaadi
Ka Ladoo which were sweet films but didn't really
satisfy me as an actor. Whereas in Ramji Londonwale,
there's ample scope for performance and I definitely
think it will do wonders for my career."
The original by the way had Kamal Haasan play a cameo.
While that's about work, Samita had an eventful playtime
too for she made friends with "Jade Jagger, daughter
of Mick Jagger who I had met up with while he was
in Mumbai. Jade is a jewellery designer and we hit
it off really well."
So now that she's back in Mumbai after almost two
months is she catching up on life? "Yes, I'm
catching up on the heat first," she laughs.