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Set for new roles Ayesha Takia

But her career graph started ascending after she managed to corner admirers with the multi-starrer musical Salam-e-Ishq. And Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor, in which she played a young widow, did wonders for her. She was acknowledged as a fine actor who could do serious roles too. This role also won her two awards: the Star Screen Critics Award for Best Actress and the Stardust Award for Best Supporting Actress.

But that was only one film. Ayesha seems to be back to what she was doing — a bubbly innocent girl, given to impulses. In Rohit Shetty’s Sunday too, she dons similar garb, but “with a difference” as he puts it. The film, which is a remake of a hit Telegu film Anukokunda Oka Roju, sees its release this coming Friday . Ajay Devgan, Irrfan Khan and Arshad Warsi are Ayesha’s co-stars.

Says a 21-year-old Ayesha, who also hosted a T.V programme Disney at the age of 13, “Though this film has experienced actors, my role has not been thinned because of their presence. I don’t play a girl standing next to her boyfriend goofing up things. I play a role that hardly any heroine has played.” As Sehar, she is “the most wanted dubbing artiste for animation films” in Sunday. Too busy to keep track of her schedule, one day she realises that one Sunday is missing from her life. “And on that Sunday, a murder takes place to which she is invariably linked.”

“This role helped me learn dubbing for animated characters. In the introduction scene I had to make at least eight difference voices. When I saw myself on the monitor, I was a little embarrassed and was apprehensive of people’s response to it. But as my co-stars and others laughed and found it really funny, I was slightly assured that the audience would also like it,” says Ayesha with honesty.

After Dor, Ayesha says her fan following has increased and so has her responsibility as an actor. “All of a sudden, I have become cautious of the roles I agree to do. I think, the kind of roles that are offered to me, I need a Dor every year to prove that I haven’t forgotten how to play serious roles,” she says.

In her forthcoming films too, among the films that offer her “different” roles, there is Nagesh Kukunoor’s Tasveer in which she plays the lead opposite Akshay Kumar, Pokhri opposite Salman Khan to be directed by Prabhu Deva, Nikhil Advani’s half live and half animated film in which she plays the title character Yuvraj and in De Tali opposite Ritesh Deshmukh and Aftab Shivdasani. R.S.

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