When she came here, half of the Mumbai bachelors were trying to take her on a date! But she sat in her hotel room and learnt her dialogues. That's the difference between an Indian and an overseas person, who has come from the business of entertainment. They value contracts and professionalism.

One day, Ilene could not remember her lines. She asked if we could do the shot the next day. She said, 'I feel like a retard (because) someone is holding a paper for me. I can't do a half job. I must do a full job.'

The next day, she came completely prepared. In fact, when she came, I asked (dialogue writer) Niranjan (Iyer) to check whether she could say her dialogues in Hindi well. Niranjan came back and told me that Ilene was talking so well; her pronunciation was better than (Paap heroine) Udita Goswami!

I have taken more pains with Udita for forgetting her dialogues then I have taken for Ilene, who can't speak the language it all.

Irrfan is a good actor. He came, shot for his scenes and went back. He gave me no grief.

Was it easy to make a South African model act in a Hindi film?

No. But it was not as difficult to make Ilene act as it was to make Udita act! The foreign angle has nothing to do with acting. In fact, that was an advantage because she was more diligent then any Indian could ever be!

If you compare the Indian attitude with the foreign attitude, Ilene beats my last 10 heroines hands down in terms of professionalism! I am not saying the others gave me trouble but we did not have to mollycoddle Ilene at all.