'Acting is me'

Ronjita Kulkarni

She loves reading. Loves dal-chaaval. And knows her mind well.

Antara Mali was always interested in the arts. She had been exposed to it since childhood - grandfather Shantanu Mali was a painter and father Jagdish Mali a renowned photographer. Her mother was into drama.

Antara chose to act. "I tried to dabble in a lot of things. But I found my expression in acting."

Her father was quite shocked with her decision - she was the first in the family to choose the silver screen. "Initially, my father thought that acting was just a passing fancy for me. But then, I'm not the kind of person who does things for a lark. If I decide something, I make sure I do it. He realised that and accepted my decision."

Antara was to debut in Shabnam Kapoor's Dum Dum Diga, but the project was shelved. So she debuted in Ram Gopal Varma's Prem Katha in Telugu.

She became Ramuji's (as he is fondly called in the industry) blue-eyed girl. And started appearing in most of his films, including her Hindi film debut Mast (Aftab Shivdasani, Urmila), and the ready-for-release Company (Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi, Manisha Koirala and Mohanlal).

She also features in Rajat Mukherjee's Road (Manoj Bajpai, Vivek Oberoi), produced by Ram Gopal Varma.

The actress did not have a big launch, like most actresses do. But she loved her bit role in Mast so much that she couldn't refuse it. "I loved that role. I didn't care if it was the lead role or a small one. Besides, I had already worked with Ramuji before."

Antara also loved the role of Kannu, Vivek Oberoi's love interest in Company. "I thought I could do the role really well. Since I loved the role so much, I would go on and on about it to Ramuji. Seeing my enthusiasm, he cast me in that role.

"I haven't done this kind of role before. Kannu comes from a poor, uneducated background, from the slums of Vikhroli, Mumbai. I did a lot of homework for the role - about clothes, body language and the way she speaks. I have met a lot of women like her, so I kept them in mind to understand Kannu. I also took a trip to the slums of Vikhroli to get a feel of the place."

Working with a director like Ramuji was a beautiful experience for Antara. "He gave me the canvas, the material and a conducive atmosphere. With this, I could perform even better," she says.

Antara, who has acted at school, left her college (D G Ruparel, Mumbai) midway to pursue her career as an actress. "I was not nervous working with big stars like Ajay Devgan, Manisha Koirala and Mohanlal. To me, they were characters of the film, not stars," she adds.

Post Company, she will be seen in Anurag Kashyap's Ghulal.