Was it scary to sign up for a TV series considering you’d be pigeonholed in the character and set-up for years to come?

It was terrifying, especially since I’ve always wanted to do a variety of roles. But this was a great opportunity because HBO has done some of the most exciting TV. Also, I’ve never done such a high profile TV show before. And, being half-Asian it was exciting for me to get such a super offer.

What interesting things did you learn about Roman history while shooting for the series?

My character in ‘Rome’ is very poor. And, while there is a lot known about the rich in ancient Rome, not much has been written about the poor. On the show, what we did was to try to find the closest parallel to a living culture with a pantheistic, multi-caste, multi-class society where women are very much behind the men. As I am half Indian, we immediately drew a parallel with India and though there were shortcomings, the exercise was useful. Roman households have a shrine just the way in India every home has a pooja and stuff like that. That was really interesting.

So, do you like your character?

She’s great! I think you have to like your character in order to perform well. And while my character does a nasty thing (she betrays her husband), I truly believe that there’s no such thing as a bad person. You try and find the good in everyone and fall in love with that person.

People still remember your nude scenes in ‘Kamasutra’. Do you have any nude scenes in ‘Rome’, too?

I have one, but you don’t really see very much. I think as soon as the audience sees a naked body, they startthinking - ‘Oh my God! She has got quite big tits’. It doesn’t help the narrative. The sex scene in ‘Rome’ is not about eroticism because Niobe and Verinus are falling in love.