Akanksha Puri was part of Kingfisher Airlines’ cabin crew before she became an actress and says she feels lucky to debut in Bollywood with Madhur Bhandarkar’s Calendar Girls. The role requires a heightened glamour quotient and Akanksha reveals, “I went on to become a South Indian actor but I was never a model; and so wearing a bikini was new to me during Calendar Girls.”
Akanksha insists, “There is hype about the bikini scene created by people but there is only a 60-second bikini shot in one song. There are no explicit scenes or any skin show other than that in the film. We were prepared for such scenes as the film is about calendar girls. But while other girls were from a modeling background, it was the first time I wore a bikini in my career.”
Akanksha was skeptical about the fact that she didn’t have a modeling background and that would also prove to be a disadvantage while casting, but her worst fears were allayed. “I thought they were looking for tall and skinny supermodels. I was not very serious about my audition at first, but I gave it a shot. We had to do scenes from Fashion and Heroine as our screen tests. I am a big fan of Madhur sir’s films and went to meet him. After that conversation, I knew I had got the part.”
Though she is a Punjabi in real life, having acted in a couple of South Indian films helped Akanksha play ‘Nandita Menon, a tough and confident South Indian girl from Hyderabad.’ Claiming to be 90 percent like her character, Akanksha says, “She is well educated and comes from a strong background. She wants to lead an independent life.” Akanksha is now confident of her future. She playfully says, “He has given us this opportunity and we - the five girls -- are lucky. I know we will keep in touch and support each other throughout. He has pampered us well! We will face problems in the next production because we’ve been treated as stars.”