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The abs are working

Esha Deol is trying hard to create a hip new image

PHOTO: SAMPATH KUMAR G.P.

MAKING TIME Esha Deol: `In the movie business you really don't get much time, but I try and take one and a half hours to do my workouts'

"There is only one and there always will be only one Dream Girl. That title belongs to my mom," says Esha Deol. "But if anyone in this generation of actors can rightfully claim the Dream Girl title, it's me. I take it as my blood right, my genetic right," she giggles.

But before you can say "what confidence!" the actor promptly lets her insecurities slip. She refuses to take off her aviator glasses. "No photographs when I am talking please," she insists.

Busy promoting a brand of coffee, she spent an hour posing with coffee mugs and even whipping up her favourite frappe. Okay, she didn't mix it herself but she insisted the recipe was hers (honey, milk and coffee).

Hema Malini's first-born says she's a coffee drinker like any good Tamilian. "I was on this Rockstar world tour for the last one and a half months. We had such a crazy schedule with back-to-back shows and the only thing that kept me going was coffee."

Although the actor did both Yuva and its Tamil original Ayutha Ezhuthu, there are no plans to head south. "I speak Tamil, and I want to do the role of a proper Tamil girl, not just anything," she says shrugging off the "anything" dramatically.

Her upcoming projects include Darling by Ram Gopal Varma (she's not supposed speak about the film), Baat Pakki directed by Meghna Gulzar (a story of a couple who have an arranged marriage) and finally Cash by Anubhav Sinha. "I am really excited about Cash, because there is some great action in the movie."No more riding pillion with biker heroes or as a prop showing off that gorgeous, well-toned body. "I get to do my kick-ass action sequences and I think I am the only one who can carry it off today," says the petite actor who once played state-level football.

Esha has, in the recent past, become a fitness icon. Pumping iron, riding behind her biker ("good") friends from the industry, and now, sporting tattoos of the Gayatri Mantra and "Om" on her shoulders, the actor has worked hard on this new image as she has on her abs and sculpted muscles she famously flaunted in Dhoom.

"In the movie business you really don't get much time, but I try and take one and a half hours to do my workouts," says Esha. And then there is also the dancing.

The trained Odissi dancer performs regularly with her mother and younger sister Aahna. "I have to make do with three-four days of practice, and when I am on an outdoor shoot, I ask guruji to come over."

At the end of the day, she's half-Punjabi, half-Tamil, talented and pretty, a bit of a star, a bit of a tomboy. And just having fun.

MEERA MOHANTY

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