She's just another pretty bird caught in Bollywood's high tension wires. At first glance she's typical of that catwalk species from model town. The epitome of make-overs and good grooming with a mandatory tiara of semi precious stones -- a trinket from her 'Miss India' days.
But don't be fooled. She may seem smug with life's small graces but the lady has big techni-color dreams.
Seemingly content to take a few nimble steps on her 1000-mile journey to the Bollywood skyway, Namrata Shirodkar has made a living out of playing the second fiddle in the showbiz.
But, Nams is no vacuous doll. She's biding her time, waiting in the wings for that big role of a lifetime. Till then why not be saleable and durable. She rationalizes - ''Let's be honest, Hindi film heroines hardly get roles of substance and when you do you take it or stick around with the routine. I like comedy films and would love to do one. On the other hand I don't mind the length of the role, which can be seen in Pukar and Vaastav. I wasn't there from the beginning till the end. You can leave an impact even with a five- minute scene. ''
She seems to have mapped it all. Maybe it's a chess game for her. Slow to move but quick to the bait, she's patience on a monument. No starry sulks or tantrums only a raring to go actress and a courteous soul.
It was with 'Vaastav' and 'Pukar' that she first broke water in Bollywood.
In Vaastav she etched an amazing performance in her two-bit role as the garishly painted woman of our great human bazaar – the Kothawali. To see one of our anglicized young things spitting coarse Galiwali Hindi is a substantial switch.
A persona change that can be induced only by acting and Nams did a mighty good job.
Recently chatting up Bollynet.com she revealed : '' I don't have career strategies. After 'Pukar' and 'Vaastav' I was thrilled that people liked me as a performer. That's the only thing that has me going on and giving my best to the films I have. I keep getting quite a lot of offers but I would rather not do ten films which are not that great in role or story but just five films which give me satisfaction as an actress and also are loved by the audiences. I would like to be in the list of good and serious actresses. I want to be associated with good work and people. But this is not to be interpreted as I won't do any song and dance roles ''.
It's a gamble, that meaty role she is waiting to sink her teeth into may just be a hand-span away, she hopes.
A word of advise to this struggling starlet : Don’t ignore or undermine what we classify as 'supporting roles'. If Nams can leap frog to such roles from her inconsequential sidey ones it will be a definite graduation in her career graph.
Thank heavens Nams hasn't succumbed to doing that 'hot number' in films, like younger Sis Shilpa Shirodkhar.
Very few can do what Karishma did, rising to meaningful roles after compromising early on with petty 'Khatia' and 'Sexy... Sexy' numbers.
Nams seems to have her head in the right place and has steered clear of the lure of such skin-deep numbers.
She even has a decent hamper of films presently - '' I have signed up two films with Mahesh Manjrekar. I have Mahesh's home production called 'Kabhie Dhoop Kabhie Chhaon' a remake of his award-winning film 'Aai'. It stars Rekhaji and Me.... Then I have 'Tere Mera Saath Rahen' with Ajay and Sonali, directed by Mahesh again. I also have Tinnu Anand's next film with Sunil Shetty, which is a thriller. I have my hands full with five good films, '' she chirps.
Her latest release is Deepak Sareen's 'Albela' opposite top guns like Govinda, Aishwarya and Jackie Shroff. Best of luck gal !
She's just another pretty bird caught in Bollywood's high tension wires. At first glance she's typical of that catwalk species from model town. The epitome of make-overs and good grooming with a mandatory tiara of semi precious stones -- a trinket from her 'Miss India' days. 