''Character Dheela'' item girl Zarine Khan dreams of turning restaurateur

Actress Zarine Khan says that acting was never on her list of things she wanted to do and  insists that she had always wanted to become an entrepreneur instead. While one would wonder if opening a restaurant was an alternate career option considering that she has not been doing too many films post her debut film, she is persistent in her argument. “Well, it is not an alternate career option. Having a restaurant of my own has been a childhood dream. In fact I feel it’ll be easier to fulfil this dream because of my career as an actor,” she says.

So if not an alternate career option, we ask her if it was her back-up option, just in case she didn’t click in Bollywood and also keeping in mind the short shelf-life of actors. “It was never a back-up option. In fact that was my priority. I became an actor by chance. And now I’m very happy with what I’m doing right now.”

After 'Character Dheela', her item number, Zarine has apparently been flooded with other offers for special numbers, stage shows and performances, but she has declined all the offers that came her way. Her next outing will be filmmaker Sajid Khan’s Housefull 2, and about the rumours doing the rounds that she will be seen in a bikini, she reveals that nothing of that sort is happening. “No I won’t be wearing a bikini. And I’m not at all comfortable with unnecessary skin show. I would rather be known for my acting skills than my body.” But while she will not be sporting a bikini, she has lost oodles of weight. So if it weren’t for a bikini, what prompted her to lose weight? “I had to do it. I’d put on weight for my movie, which people didn’t understand and criticised me to the core. Obviously it wouldn’t work for my future projects and so I had to lose weight and get back to my original size. In fact, with my contemporaries becoming thinner by the day, I too have to go that extra mile to stay fit.”

Besides her turning entrepreneur and her Bollywood career, she is also trying her hands at doing films down south. “Yes. I’ve signed a film opposite Vikram. This time it is again a period drama. The makers of the film liked my work in Veer and were keen to cast me. The film’s shooting will start in September.”