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Vashi2Panvel.Com: Navi Mumbai: May 18: Antara Mali, daughter of renowned commercial photographer Jagdish Mali is most famous for her role of Madhuri in 'Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon'. It was her way of paying tribute to the legendry actress Madhuri Dixit who remained Antara’s icon for years she says. After her role in Mast she became a staple feature in Ram Gopal Varma’s movies. She was seen in Ramgopal Varma's Darna Mana Hai and Gayab where she played the role of Tusshar Kapoor's love interest. Lately Antara also tried her hand at direction with Mr. ya Miss. in 2005.

This hot and sizzling actress who is here to give all the hot babes in the industry a run for their money, is surprisingly a very private person. “I love my space, I like solitude”, she says. “Not that I don’t like meeting people, but not too often”, she adds. As for hobbies, Antara loves reading and dancing. “I’ve been reading all my life. I have studied in a boarding school and am so used to reading before sleeping that I don’t get sleep without it. During school days I used to read under the torch light and for me reading was a pleasure. Even now, the first thing I do in the morning is read. However if I’ve to go out early, I make it a point to wake up half an hour early and read. I can read absolutely anything. I used to read a lot of mystery stories previously and these days I’m more into books like those of John Stemberg”.

Anatara has studied in St. Mary’s High School, Pune and then came to Mumbai to Ruparel College. “I wanted to study philosophy but couldn’t complete my graduation because I got into films at a very early age. My first release was Mast, when I was just 16”. Antara is the sought of person who gets bored of things very quickly, so if she isn’t passionate about something she wont be able to pursue it for long. “Acting is one thing I always wanted to do. It was my calling. It is because I love acting so much that I have been able to pursue it for so long. I don’t know about the future but I would love to pursue acting forever. However, I would never go for roles that don’t interest me. There is no ideal role for me but I need to have an emotional connection with the character, only then would I go for it. My favourite has been my role of Mr. Amit in my last movie Mr. Ya Miss.”, says the confident actress.

Antara as we would guess enjoys being single for she has her time and her space. “For me it’s always been me me and me. If you talk about selfishness, I am an epitome of selfishness. I live within myself and am extremely happy that way. In a relationship you have to share and I’m not prepared for it. I shall take it as it comes but I’m not consciously going to get involved in one. As of love I can never understand it. All have different definitions of love and I believe you cannot love anybody as much as you love yourself. Life is all about perception and for me I come before anybody else”, she says.

Antara has no Mr. Perfect in her mind and believe that you need to have chemistry with a person in order to get along with him well. “I get along with everybody. I’m not too sure about the kind of man I admire but I surely admire compassion and integrity in a man. There needs to be trust in a relationship for it to be successful. My man would be the man who thinks of me before he thinks of himself. He has to be interesting. When I wake up in the morning I should feel there is something interesting about the man in my life for me to live with him”. To Antara love and marriage are two different things. “Marriage is not about the right person, it’s about the right time. You don’t need to love to get married. Marriage surely brings in love and stability to life but also brings along an invasion of privacy. I would like to experience everything in life and can never say never in life. So I’ll take marriage as it comes to me. However, I don’t know what a perfect marriage is and believe that there is nothing like perfect marriage. I haven’t even attended many marriages so don’t know much about the traditions of Indian marriages.”

To end it all, Antara says that she never wanted to be desirable. “I don’t attract men but I believe if someone was to get attracted to me it would be because of my independence and how I talk”, she concludes.

SUMISHA ARORA
INDIA NEWS FEATURE SERVICE