Antonia charmed by Bollywood 21st Jan 2005
18.40 IST
By Aparajita Ghosh
It was nothing short of a gambit for British girl Antonia Bernath to cut short her education at the Old Vic Theatre School in London and take a chance at acting in a Hindi movie.
The 23-year-old beauty knew that Bollywood was bigger than Hollywood in terms of the number of films made annually and its audience reach in Asia and parts of Europe.
So when she was offered the leading role in Subhash Ghai ’s big budget movie Kisna , Antonia took the gambit and was soon her way to make an acting career with a Bollywood film.
Antonia spent three weeks learning Hindi and taking dance lessons. In the film, she plays an army general's daughter who falls in love with a rural boy Kisna, played by Vivek Oberoi .
The BBC quotes Antonia as saying: “Initially, I was a bit skeptical about how people would respond to me. But I found the Hindi film industry very warm and encouraging. I even had a few offers before the work on Kisna was completed.”
In another interview, Antonia said she was “charmed by Bollywood and India.” In between the making of Kisna she did some traveling and also stayed a good number of days in an ashram in Rishikesh.