She was touted as the next Bhagyashree with her girl-next-door innocence and eyes that did all the talking. Bhumika Chawla did show lot of promise with the kind of films she chose. From rising like a star in masala entertainer Tere Naam (2003) to playing a serious role in Gandhi-My Father (2007), there was a time when she was offered close to 30 films a month in various languages, including Jab We Met. But as fate would have it, Gandhi-My Father was her last Hindi film. “I was offered so many films that I feared being typecast. I made my decision based on my instinct and I am content with my career,” she says.
What about missing out on Jab We Met, the film that made many careers? “I wouldn’t be honest if I say I don’t regret missing out on that film. But I believe in moving on,” she says. She was cast opposite Bobby Deol but the film got delayed by a year-and-a-half and she had to let go of it.
Lately, industry is rife with rumours of her comeback. “I am not doing any Hindi film right now. I read a few scripts last year but none of them excited me. If I do plan to make a comeback of sorts, I would rather wait for a brilliant script like English Vinglish,” she says. Currently, the actress is busy doing southern films, with April Fool (Telugu) and Buddy (Malayalam) being her latest releases.
Talking about the new league of Indie films, she says that with directors like Tigmanshu Dhulia and Anurag Kashyap, films have broken barriers between popular and parallel cinema. She was completely floored by Dhulia’s brilliant direction in Paan Singh Tomar. “I worked under Dhulia’s direction in Star Bestsellers (1999-2000), a television series. It was a great experience.” So, would she work in television, the medium she began with? Bhumika is open to good series but “nothing like Bigg Boss”. “You may find it oxymoronic but I am not a person who can handle cameras around me 24X7,” she says.
Bigg Boss reminds Bhumika of Salman Khan. Recalling the time spent on the sets of Tere Naam, she says working with him was a great experience. She remembers him making her comfortable on the sets, especially if she would get stuck with scenes. She shares a funny incident from the sets, when Khan sought her opinion on the hairstyle he had in the film; she spoke her heart much to his chagrin, “I don’t like it!” Later while shooting for Run (2004) in Mauritius and Canada, she realised how that hairstyle had become a fashion statement. “When I look back, I fail to understand how I managed to say something like that to him,” she muses. “Maybe there’s a bit of Nirjhara in me.”
Interestingly, Khan had a greater role to play in her life. “My husband, yoga guru Bharat Thakur, saw me in a Tamil film, Roja Kootam in 2002. We later met at Salman’s birthday party in Mumbai,” she says. It was at that party where Thakur confessed that he liked her much before he saw her in person. “And before we knew it, we were married,” she says.
Bhumika donned a producer’s hat for a couple of Telugu films along with her husband, but things didn’t go as planned. “The films didn’t do well but it was a learning experience for both of us,” she says. For now, she just wants to be an actor.
