Film with Big B? It will tank!

Whispers of “Jessica” get louder and more frequent as Myra walks down the hotel lobby. Not that she minds, though. The fresh-faced actress, who got under the skin of Jessica Lall for an effortless portrayal in “No One Killed Jessica”, says with a smile, “People have stopped calling me by my name. Everywhere I go, I’m only referred to as Jessica!”
Casually sipping on her cappuccino, Myra is refreshingly comfortable with her onscreen persona.“What’s the problem if people identify me with Jessica? I must have done something right for them to remember me thus.” So much for industry warnings against being typecast.
Myra’s comfort stems also from her identification with her “NOKJ” character on a personal level. “I’m similar to Jessica in many ways,” she reveals. She admits that she would have reacted no differently than Jessica did on that fateful night. “I think she behaved in a sane manner, like any other girl would. I don’t think she saw it coming – that someone would kill her over a drink. I’d behave in exactly the same way. If I’m teased on the road, I try to ignore it at first, but if the guy crosses the line, main uska case le loongi.”
Perhaps this is what made “NOKJ” director Raj Kumar Gupta so insistent (“He told me you have to play Jessica, you are my Jessica. I didn’t have a choice.”) that Myra play the title role – her curious mix of spunk and vulnerability. Not that she’s ever raised her hand on a guy, except for that goon-thrashing scene in the film. “Knowing that I had never done it before, Vidya teased me saying, ‘Just go for it’. But on a more serious note, getting into an altercation with guys is dangerous, as they are normally stronger and can overpower us any time,” she says.
So what’s her advice to women, what with news of the murder of two girls in the capital making headlines? “More than the women, I’d like to tell the men to stop being so heartless and barbaric,” she says promptl, “All this happening in the capital of our country doesn’t say much about us as a nation. Seems like life has no value here.”
Remind her that the chief minister of Delhi, also a woman, had once asked girls to stop being ‘adventurous’ in order to avoid untoward incidents, and she remarks, “Did she actually say that? Seriously, what was she thinking? I mean girls, too, should take care to dress appropriately for an occasion – you can’t expect to go to the vegetable market in micro-minis and not get stared at. But then there’s only so much you can do. Men, after all, are just men.”
As the conversation veers towards Jessica again, Manu Sharma’s name is mentioned for the first time. “That was a ghastly act, but I guess he’s paying for what he did. I read in an interview (DT, February 21, 2011) that he wished he were in Jessica’s place. I think he realises what he’s done and is repenting,” Myra says.
But what if she were ever to meet him? “I really don’t know how I’d react. I’d just be speechless,” she says, looking visibly overwhelmed. The thought that a victim’s family still has to wait for years together to get justice, adds to the furrows that have formed between her perfectly tweezed brows. “I have great regard for the judicial system but justice delayed is justice denied. How do you expect a victim’s family to wait patiently in the hope of justice being delivered, while the one who is guilty roams around scot free? How can you be sure that during that time, he’ll not commit another crime?”
Well, reality bites, for sure. Is that why a film based on a real incident needs to draw upon the imagination too? In defence of her film, which was accused of presenting half-truths, Myra says, “When you are dealing with a true incident, it becomes very difficult to stick to the facts without letting the movie drift and drag, so, we tend to take creative liberties. Also, Raj Kumar had clearly said that the movie was part-fiction and part-fact.”
And having played out her share of facts, Myra, who never intended to take the plunge into films, is all set for some real Bollywood fiction. Raj Kumar’s next, “Rapchik Romance”, will see her in an all-new avatar. The question is, how will the audience take it? “I don’t think that’s a problem. I have people coming up to me and telling me that they want to see me in a romantic role,” is her confident reply. “They’d love to see their Jessica fall in love.”
So they would, especially in real life. Ask her about any ‘good friend’ on the horizon and she retorts, “The day I’m with someone, I’ll let the whole world know that he is my boyfriend. I don’t understand why actresses keep their relationships under wraps, in spite of being seen with a particular person time and again. How can they come up with the lame excuse of being ‘good friends’? By denying your relationship, you only provide fodder for gossip and end up getting linked to every guy you are spotted with.”
While she takes the price of stardom in her stride, there’s no compromise when it comes to her dignity: “If anybody tries to make an indecent proposal to me, I’ll just tell him to FO. He’ll get the message loud and clear.”
Still finding her feet in B-Town, Myra expectedly looks up to celluloid’s biggest icon, Amitabh Bachchan. And then, unexpectedly, confesses that she doesn’t fancy being paired opposite him. “The age gap is huge!” she laughs. But remind her of the Amitabh-Jiah pairing in “Nishabd” and she sheepishly quips, “But you also know the fate of the film at the box-office. Do you want an encore of that?”
So who’s the mystery man who’s just right for her in “Rapchik Romance”? A grin is all you get. “In “NOKJ”, my character was kept under wraps, and now, in “RR”, the guy is the surprise element!”
Oh well, we can live with that!