‘It’s the time for specialised actors’

[1]

An early morning meeting with the actor and former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen is like a breath of fresh air. Relaxing and inward looking, thanks to the mentoring skills she has acquired of late, Sen says, “Mentoring is a huge, huge challenge.

There are a lot of pressures.” Obviously she is referring to the hardships faced while she has been busy backstage making raw lasses turn into divas to face the greatest challenge of their lives.” In town with Himangini Singh Yadu, the winner of the 2012 title of Miss Asia Pacific World, Sen is proud and nostalgic. Also elated about India's beauty journey from 1994 to 2012, she calls the pageants a win-win situation.
“Being the founder of Tantra Entertainment, under whose banner the national beauty pageant, I Am She — Miss Universe India started in 2010, everyone questioned how I would I deliver and by when. Today, I am so thrilled that it happened in the third year of the foundation’s inception. But, for India, the crown has come after 12 long years, so the moment calls for a celebration,” she smiles.
Challenges at Sen’s foundation — such as disciplining the girls, expanding in the now open and ever-connected world, lining up sponsors for the show, and eventually putting India back on the world beauty map — have been met with a lot of introspection. “Today, we are connected to a greater number of girls. The percentage of girls coming from smaller cities is on the rise. Many of them face language barriers, which we have overcome by letting them speak in whatever language they want. We are more focused on what they have to say rather than how they say it,” says Sen adding, “It is also noteworthy that most of the participants are from lesser seen professions such as law and medicine.”
The plans for I Am She are also being laid. “We plan to organise a two week grooming session outside India, offer more scholarships to the girls, and hold a close-knit fashion week dedicated to the foundation,” says the actress who was last seen in 2010 in No Problem.
So is the time right to make a comeback amidst films that have sensible, women-centric roles? “Indeed, the time is huge for actors. In fact, this is the time for specialised actors. Today, an individual can avoid being like another and show his or her best skills,” replies the actress, who does not consider her Bollywood hiatus a big deal. “Considering I am not someone who gets paranoid if her film does not release every second Friday, the decision to concentrate on I Am She came easy to me. I have been reading scripts for the past two years, and wanted to take the best I came across. I have signed a few projects so by the end of this or next year you will see me in a film. Not divulging much, I can only say — wait and watch out for me!” she concludes.