Sexy or serious?

PreityZinta was recently quoted as saying that while popular cinema is her bread andbutter, she can now afford to do films of all hues.
Afteryears of commercial cinema, Preity has shed her glam image to do back-to-backcharacter roles. While she sports a classy ethnic look in The Last Lear, sheportrays the role of a battered Punjabi housewife sans make-up in DeepaMehta���s Heaven And Earth.
It goes to show that an actress hasto put in a certain number of years in commercial cinema and earn mass appealbefore making the transition.Which is also the reason most debutantes preferbig banners to small-budget cinema.
Lillete Dubey, who has donecharacter roles as well as made glam appearances in films, says there���shardly any space for character roles today. ���I���m lucky to have aninteresting career at this age and that I didn���t have to work for years toget the recognition. But character roles are hard to come by. There is no space,and age is also a big factor in Bollywood,��� she says.
Lilleteagrees with Preity in that once an actress is established in the industry, shehas the freedom to choose from different types of roles. ���Film is a visualmedium. So if you portray a certain kind of image for years, it becomesdifficult to get out of that. We have highly commercialised categories inBollywood ��� item girls, glamour girls, good actors ��� and heroinestends to get slotted into one or the other. The transition can be made after acertain number of years. However, it might get difficult for an actress to getback to popular cinema after doing three to four de-glam roles,��� shesays.
Namma actress Tara, who���s made a smooth transition frommainstream to parallel cinema, says though that all roles are the same to anartiste. ���For an artiste, all kinds of roles are meaningful and aretreated in the same manner. So there is no difficulty in doing parallel andpopular cinema at the same time. Sharmila Mandre has accomplished that in ashort span of time,��� she points out. Tara concedes that Bollywood is morecommercialised than regional cinema and switching genres might be trickierthere.
Lillete adds that the line between commercial and art cinemais gradually blurring. ���Things are changing and film-makers are becomingmore open-minded. So you have Tisca Chopra playing a mother of two in TaareZameen Par at such a young age, and Sahana Goswami debuting in a supporting rolein Rock On!! If you���re talented and consider yourself an actor, genresdon���t matter. But if you yearn for the star tag, you must establishyourself in commercial cinema first,��� she says.