Mallika clears the air

JUST A few years ago she was this girl from Haryana who rode tractors on farms and came to Mumbai hoping to make a mark in tinsel town.

Today, Mallika Sherawat’s done more than that by stepping into Hollywood and walking down the Cannes red carpet with Jackie Chan.

Incidentally, she’s also the first actress here to have a trademark of her own name, which means no one can use her name for publicity or for any other commercial purpose without her consent.

Brand Mallika... why did you feel the need to have a trademark?

This is something my limited Haryanvi brain struggles to decipher. My brilliant lawyer is handling it and would know better.

You play the quirky and kinky Pagli in your next film. Tell us about some of your quirks in real life?

Well, I’m very pushy about my vegetarian agenda. I nag my poor brother everyday about it and I’m obsessed with dental hygiene.

Doesn’t your choice of roles keep you away from acting with the top heroes?

Stories and roles are more important to me than co-stars, although there are a couple of top heroes whose work and choices I admire.

You must be excited about playing the nagin in Jennifer Lynch’s movie. What about the other international film you were doing?

Never been more excited! I’ve been a huge fan of her father and Blue Velvet’s one of my favourite films of all time. I also loved Jennifer’s last film, Surveillance. I’m now super excited about working with Rob Kurtzman on the film. He’s done all the Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez films and also the Evil Dead films. The other international film has taken some time as the script has been going through rewrites.

Did you refuse to appear on Dus Ka Dum as you didn’t want to share screen space with Salman Khan? Is there a problem between the two of you?

I have no problems with anyone, as long as they don’t have problems with me. My publicist decides where I should make an appearance and I obediently follow her advice.

Diva diet

APPARENTLY THESE days Mallika is on a new diet wherein she will only eat Japanese food, sushi in particular. It’s oil and fat free.

Our source who recently worked on a film with Mallika reveals, “Mallika refuses to touch the food served on the sets. She says that she has to maintain her body and is on a new diet whereby she can only eat Japanese sushi, specially made to order from a particular five-star hotel in Bandra.

“Sushi at this five -star is a speciality and therefore very expensive! Once when the producer wasn’t on the film’s set she called up his wife and ordered her to get Sushi for her! This producer has vowed never to work with Mallika again.”

Yet another industry insider reveals that Mallika also needs a constant supply of Mango juice made especially from Alphonso mangoes.

“She once ordered a dozen boxes of Alphonso mangoes and sent the bill to her producer. When the producer asked her why she had ordered these boxes Mallika replied, ‘doctor has advised me to drink a glass of fresh mango juice daily to maintain my complexion.’ The producer quietly footed the bill.”

On yet another shoot Mallika harassed the production unit by refusing to step out of her vanity van until she was served with Evian.

If her strange food demands weren’t enough, Mallika also ill-treats her co-stars and has little consideration for them. On the sets of her latest film Ugly Aur Pagli, Mallika would talk extremely rudely to her co-star Ranvir and at one instance when Ranvir was late by an hour Mallika threw a fit.