Three years ago model-turned-actress Lisa Ray was voted as star of the future at the Toronto International Film Festival for her lively performance in the campy and fun ‘Bollywood Hollywood’. Then the Polish-Indian actress surprised everyone by putting her thriving film career on hold. After her sabbatical year in a top London drama school, Ray has emerged with her first film, Deepa Mehta’s ‘Water’.
She has two soon-to-be released big budget English movies ‘Quarterlife Crisis’ and ‘Seeking Fear’. A self-described gypsy or ‘sufi-soul’ Ray grew up in Canada with a love for Begali mustard fish curry and Polish kielbasa from her mixed race parents.
In a freewheeling conversation with After Hours, Lisa talks about upcoming film projects, her Indian connection and being a free-spirited global citizen:
Are you still modeling?
I had a very long, extended modeling career and I took a conscious decision to stop. I am still an ambassador for Rado watches and to that happy end will be in Delhi on November 11. I love traveling to India. My father’s extended Bengali family is in Calcutta and I have a lot of friends in Mumbai. I visit at least twice a year.
Where do you live?
Nowhere. I am a gypsy. Between New York, Toronto, boyfriend in Paris, London and of course, India is still home.
You took a year off to get a post-graduate degree from London’s Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in 2004. Did any insecurity about acting prompt the decision?
It was an investment in me. I agree that it was an unconventional decision because my film career was already up-and-running but I think it is one of the reasons Deepa Mehta cast me in ‘Water’. She saw me as someone committed to the craft. Acting is an art and a craft and I think the best of actors re-train themselves. Even Al Pacino and Robert De Niro have gone back to drama school to train. Some insecurity is great because you will find it in the best of artists.
Are you planning to return to Bollywood? Does Hindi throw you off?
I speak Hindi. I lived in Mumbai for eight years so I speak a khichri sort of Hindi which is very acceptable in Mumbai. There are offers that come out of Bollywood and I am rather flattered that they want me. I am half Indian but I see no compelling reason to be in Bollywood. I am reading scripts. ‘Water’ has given out an important message to the right kind of film-makers. It is a very unpredictable business but I would love to work in good cinema.
Are you worried that you might be targeted for acting in ‘Water’ by Hindu hardliners who protested violently in 2000 against what they saw as an anti-Hindu film?
I don’t feel any fear. Nobody is arm-twisting anyone to see the film – don’t see the film if you don’t like it, but don’t stop others from seeing it. I don’t see anything objectionable in ‘Water’. I stand behind the film. I am convinced that ‘Water’ will go down as an important piece of humanist cinema in the good old tradition of Satyajit Ray.
What was it like working with John Abraham?
It was a pleasure. He is very committed. At that time John was just starting out in Bollywood and now he is this huge star with people falling all over him. You have to see him as a Gandhian idealist in ‘Water’.
What are some of your movies in the pipeline?
I am the lead actress in ‘Seeking Fear’, a fast-paced thriller which is close to being completed and should be released in early 2006. Then there is the really fun, American romantic comedy, ‘Quarterlife Crisis’, which was shot in New York.
The writer is based in New York
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