Fashion Freeze

Her debut ‘Hide And Seek’ will usher Amruta Patki into the world of Hindi cinebiz. Model, singer, dancer and actor, the ‘Miss India 2006′ title winner joins the newbie brigade who intend to make a mark in the business of histrionics

The beige lip gloss shimmers to seek your attention. And looking dishy in her black ensemble, Amruta Patki, the new find of ‘Hide And Seek’ gears up to face the fusillade of queries being hurled at her within the confines of the Moserbaer office in suburban Mumbai.

Reportedly, producer Apoorva Lakhia spotted her snaps on a social networking site, sparking off her tryst with ‘Hide And Seek.’ The former beauty pageant winner (Miss India 2006), model, dancer and singer, all smartly compressed into one, declares she has little to hide about director Shawn Arranha screen testing her twice, before ushering her into his debut!

Site step

“Apoorva Lakhia saw my pictures on Facebook,” reveals Patki. “And he asked me to mail him some more pics, which I did. There were hundreds of girls who were being screen tested for the role of Gunita Sodhi, which ultimately went to me. When Shawn screen tested me first, I felt that I’d done fairly well. But he called me for a second test before he finalised me because I had no real experience in acting. But then, it was a unanimous decision on the part of Apoorva and Shawn to cast me… and I was on!”

21 mall nights!

Once she’d been pencilled in, ten days of rehearsals and extensive readings prepared Amruta for the stringent schedule that lay ahead. 27 days of canning scenes at a weird shopping mall at Ahmedabad, of which 21 were night shoots, remains an indelible memory for the actor.

“Our body clock had gone for a toss,” admits Patki. “But we did put in hard work and had lots of fun too, because we were so well prepared. Shawn made me write an essay on Gunita, as if I was the character myself. That made it so much easier for me. I understood why Gunita, a snobbish socialite, was behaving the way she did and was able to flesh her out well.”

Career confusion?

Following the predictable route of beauty title winners, who sashay into modeling and zoom into cinedom later, Patki asserts that the ‘Miss India’ crown offers a “fantastic platform to get into modeling and make contacts”. And she’s expressly clear that she always wanted to “make a career in the entertainment business.” But the confusion in her mind reigned supreme. “I wasn’t clear whether I wanted to be a model, an actress, a Hindustani music singer or a ‘kathak’ dancer,” she reveals. “I love singing and given a choice I would also like to pursue playback singing, although it has been pushed to the back of my mind at the moment.”

Thriller Quiz!

‘Hide And Seek’, a suspense thriller centred around six friends who meet up after 12 years and find themselves trapped in a shopping mall, forms the basic premise of the film. Regarding the sterling strongpoint of the flick, Patki states, “The film is like a quiz, it’s a brain teaser. ‘Hide And Seek’ will keep you guessing till the very end as to… who could be the killer?”

Anger trigger

Coax Patki to ferret out memorable vignettes connected with the making of her thrilling debut, and she states, “The producers Apoorva and Lakshmi Singh would come in at three a.m and feed us kebabs! And it used to be such fun, because all the six actors had a blast during the entire shoot!”

On a more sombre note, she traces an anecdote which remains etched in her psyche. Discloses Patki, “It helped me to understand Shawn as a director. In one particular sequence, my character was supposed to be in a very angry frame of mind and had to react accordingly. But Shawn felt that I wasn’t getting it right. He yelled at me right in front of the entire unit! I felt terrible, and hurt and angry… but once the camera was switched on, I gave a perfect take this time! Later, Shawn sat me down and explained that he did it, so that he could make me angry enough. My displaced anger managed to get the shot right for me.” (laughs)

Bikini babe

With the invasion of high glam babes into mainstream cinema, skin show and exposure have become almost a sine qua non for female leads. Patki, however, admits that she has little qualms about skin show onscreen. “I have worn a bikini in ‘Hide And Seek’ and I had no issues with it,” she smiles. “A lot depends on the director and the camera angles. Showing skin is fine, but it has to be done aesthetically. Also it’s not about how much skin you show, but about how well you can carry it off.”

Career core

Elaborating on her career philosophy, Patki states, “As an actor, I have to see that I deliver results as per what is demanded of me from the director and producer. I’ve done the first. My second job is tougher. I have to please the audiences. My strength as an actor is that I’m willing to work hard and learn. In fact, I have always made it a point to learn something new all the time because I’m thirsty for knowledge. Right now, though, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for ‘Hide And Seek’”