supermodel prepares - for Bollywood

Shilpa Raina [ Wed, Jul 14, 2010 supermodel prepares - for Bollywood]


New Delhi, July 14 (IANS) Just what does it take a supermodel who is only part Indian and has lived in Australia and the US to get her act right in Bollywood? For Lisa Haydon, who stars in "Aisha", the answer is "learning to speak Hindi minus an accent!"

"Well I had to work a lot on my diction. I had to speak dialogues in Hindi, something I wasn't comfortable with. So when I grabbed the role in 'Aisha', I started taking Hindi classes," Lisa told IANS in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.

Born to an Indian father and Australian mother, the 23-year-old model with sharp features, also known as the face of cosmetics giant Lakme, is leaving no stone unturned to make it big in the industry.

"I am still continuing with my Hindi classes because I am still learning to speak it fluently minus an accent," she said.

Apart from these classes, the model-turned-actress is also watching a lot of Bollywood movies to increase her knowledge of Indian cinema and, of course, to improve her fluency in the language.

"I grew up watching a few movies like 'Taal', but these days I have been watching Hindi movies religiously to brush up my cinema knowledge and learn it as well," said Lisa.

"I always wanted to be an actor. But modelling happened first. So when I got this offer, I was way too happy because this was something I always wanted to do," she added.

"Aisha", which is her first Bollywood movie, will be released Aug 6. Starring Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol in the leads, it is an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma and Sonam plays the main protagonist of a matchmaker.

Call it luck that Lisa was spotted by Anil Kapoor, producer of "Aisha", at a coffee shop. He got in touch with her agency, Elite model management, and she got the role of Aarti Menon in the movie.