But why is there so much of Salman Rushdie in an interview with Padma Lakshmi, do you ask? Because we can?t escape him. Not when Padma?s all set to make the first-ever movie based on Rushdie?s work, not when he?s an integral part of her plan to do more work in Indian films, and not when Padma punctuates our conversation with regular declarations of affection for her husband. As she admits with ringing laughter : ?I?m talking too much about Salman, it?s obnoxious really, but I can?t help it because I?m in love! ?

The much-in-love couple was recently in India to, among other things, finalise a director and crew for the movie based on Rushdie?s short story, The Firebird?s Nest. Padma confirms that they met Apoorva Lakhia (who directed Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost and who assisted on Lagaan).

?We like him, his work, but we?re still in negotiation. I?m a little superstitious and I don?t like to talk about things till they?re done. Also, we?ve got to get the script together,? is all she?ll say on that score. Rushdie is set to do the script and screenplay for the tale of a young Indian woman and a much older man. Sounds familiar?

Expectedly, Padma plays the female lead. But she clarifies: ?I didn?t ask for the story, he voluntarily offered it to me after he saw how hard I?d been working on the other projects in my company. I am very conscious that I have a responsibility to Salman?s work. Because I love him and because it is a huge responsibility to Indian literature. Which is why I decided to start very humbly with a short story.?

The film will be an Indo-American co-production, she says. ?We?d like some money from India but need to get some from America too to make sure the film?s distributed properly. I will be Creative Controller for the project.?

This is not the only movie she has lined up, though. ?I?m also working on a movie about a woman who looks after children in an orphanage and how she affects the community around her and how the community affects her,? she tells me. And where did she pick up this story? ?I wrote it myself,? she laughs. (Padma Lakshmi laughs a lot, I discover.) ?I used to go to this orphanage that my grandmother used to visit in Madras, I?ve visited other orphanages too in the course of my research. I?ve written the synopsis and I?m looking for someone to co-write it because I can?t be doing this and the other movie. ?

Her company, Lakshmi Films Inc, is all set to, hold your breath, produce one more film, based on Norma Klein?s book, A Domestic Arrangement. ?It is a coming-of-age story about one year in the life of a 14-year-old girl in New York.

There?s no part to speak of for me in it. But I just loved the story and it took me one year to get the rights to it,? says Padma. Then adds : ?If I feel another actor is better for a film I will do what?s best for the film.? Then laughs. ?I?m already well-known.

Getting column inches around the world is not a problem for me. I just want to do good work.??

Part of that good work will hopefully be her role in yet another movie, Hungry Hour, in which she plays an immigrant Indian woman. The film will be directed by Priyanka Kumar, of whom her heroine says : ?She?s done a beautiful documentary on Satyajit Ray that I really liked.?

While most Indian viewers know Padma Lakshmi courtesy the controversial Boom, she?s done some work in Hollywood and Italy too. ?I?ve had roles in Glitter and Star Trek as well as two Italian movies, including one with Kabir Bedi called Son of Sandokan (which never got released though) and another in which I play a Cuban woman,? she reveals.

But it is the much-maligned Boom that got her all the attention in India. And the UK, she adds. ?The only attention Boom got in the UK was because of me. I was on the cover of The Sunday Times magazine and The Evening Standard,? she has me know.

Boom had clearly been a bad experience for her. What?s more, TV viewers in India saw Salman Rushdie complain that she?d been exploited during the movie. What prompted that outburst, I ask. ?Because he loves me!? she giggles. ?And he knew what I?d gone through.?

Nudged into elaborating on that, she begins cautiously by saying : ?I had a lot of difficulties with the director (Kaizad Gustad) but I don?t think I was alone in that. To be fair to Ayesha Shroff, the producer, I did get paid for it. My lawyers made sure of that. But it was a very chaotic and disorganised set. We never knew what we were going to shoot till the day before, which was very frustrating and unfair to cast and crew because they have to prepare. I?ve worked in the West and I realised I?d have to put some of that aside and go with the flow. But even the rest of the cast, which is used to shooting in Indian films, said, this is not how it is, it?s not that bad.?

And her skimpy wardrobe, how much sense did that make to her? ?Well, if you look very carefully at my character?s wardrobe, I didn?t dress all that skimpily,? she insists. Not even in the bikini scene? ?Yes, the posters had me in a bathing suit but that was because we were on a beach,? she laughs heartily. ?But for the rest of the movie, I had on more clothes than the others. I?m fully clothed even during the bank robbery. I wore a jumpsuit but I compromised by pulling the zipper down and I wore a bustier bra underneath. I really fought all the time with designer Anna Singh and kept saying : ?I?m not gonna wear that! I really made life difficult for her. They also kept trying to put lots of huge earrings on me and I said no, I?m a model and I don?t dress like that.?

She has a point to make about all the criticism of the movie, though. ?I agree Boom was a mess and it wasn?t a good film. But I think it was criticised for the wrong reasons. It wasn?t that sexually explicit,? she argues. Including the infamous ?blow-by-blow? scene? She?s plain dismissive of that : ?Tacky, tacky, tacky!?

And moves on to her reaction when she finally saw the movie. ?I couldn?t believe that four months of work resulted in this,? she begins. Then pauses, adds, ?I?m a little reluctant to speak ill of the movie because I?m hoping it will make some money on DVD at least for curiosity value so that the crew can be paid. I?m very emotionally attached to that crew because I spent a lot of time with them and they slogged their butts off working at 2 o? clock in the afternoon in 45 degree heat in the Arabian desert in July. I?ve never done a film with a more hard-working, more dedicated crew. And these are the guys who don?t feature on magazine covers. I talked a lot to them because I?m interested in film-making rather than just being a celebrity actress. I would quiz the head of lighting about all sorts of things because I wanted to learn. That was interesting for me.?

Equally enjoyable, she says, was the time she spent with Seema Biswas. ?One of the good things about doing the movie was that I ended up making a great friend in Seema. We would talk a lot about Chekhov, Ibsen and theatre because I have a theatre background. Once we started talking about our craft, it was non-stop. We had a three-month long conversation,? she recalls.

As for her other co-star, Amitabh Bachchan, she smiles : ?He?s very sweet, very, very funny and mischievous, very good fun to work with. Unfortunately a couple of my scenes with him were cut. I don?t know what happened, it was all such a mess?? She then thrusts the bad experience aside as she looks at the positive angle: ?But I did begin my Hindi film career with a bang. I mean, to start off opposite Amitabh Bachchan is pretty damn good!?

Does this mean she?s game for another Hindi movie? ?I?m game for anything!? is the reply. ?I was burnt by the Boom experience, I needed to go home and lick my wounds. But I?m planning to come back to India in the summer and I?d really be up for doing work here in Mumbai. I?ve discovered that a lot of people wanted to offer me work after Boom but didn?t know how to get hold of me. So if you could just put this in for me that if anyone wants to get in touch with me, they can call Parmeshwar Godrej?s secretary.? There, that?s done.

In fact, she?s serious enough about Hindi films to say : ?I?m looking for an agent here because Salman and I would like to be in India a lot more. I?d like to work with people like Aamir Khan , for example. I?ve met him, I?ve seen a lot of his work of his, from Lagaan to the Coke commercials and I really respect his talent. I think he should act in English movies.?

Others she?d like to meet, she tells me, are Mani Ratnam, Ram Gopal Varma and Vikram Bhatt.

?Whether it is to act in a film or for a collaborative effort, I would be open to anything. If I can get people in India jobs through my company, why don?t I give back something to the country? We?re really interested in meeting all kinds of people and being an active presence in India.?

So how good or bad is her Hindi? ?It?s okay, it?s not great, though. But if I were doing a Hindi film, I?d come here a month in advance to pick up the pronunciation and the slang.? Given that her Tamil pronunciation is spot on, wouldn?t it be nice to do a Tamil film? ?Yes, it would be cool! I?d love to meet Kamalahasan!? she chirps.

She then sits up to makes a confession-cum request: ?I?ve made a lot of faux pas with some stars here and I want to make this apology to people like Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta. I asked Akshay, what do you do? He said, I?m an actor. And I said, what kind of actor? And he said, I?m a film actor. And then people told me he?s like the Indian Tom Cruise. I asked Preity too, what do you do? But she?s fun and pretty cool, she was very chirpy and smiling and bubbly and sweet. Then I was told Aishwarya Rai is like the Indian Julia Roberts.?

You clearly haven?t seen too many Hindi movies, I remark. ?Yes, I?ll have to start seeing a lot more,? she admits. ?But I?ve seen films like Lagaan twice and loved i. I?ve seen Company. I?m just getting to know all these people and I?ve got a lot of learning to do.?

Sounds like Padma Lakshmi means business.

But naturally, the Salman factor crops up again. ?It was really Salman,? she tells me, ?who said, you should go to Mumbai and you should make your presence felt. Because he was running into people who kept telling him, Where?s Padma, we?d like to cast her in this or that film. And he told me, people respond very affectionately towards you because you?re Indian, so you should make use of that and do good work here. It was Salman who really pushed me to say, I?m here, I?m accepting offers, please call. ? Now that?s she done that, Padma Lakshmi waits.

Padma, fourth wife of Salman

The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie has wed his fiancee, Indian actress Padma Lakshmi, in a ceremony in Manhattan in the United States, last week.

Salman Rushdie, 56, married the former model at a Hindu ceremony witnessed by some of his closest friends.

The marriage is Rushdie?s fourth and Lakshmi?s first. Rushdie wore a long black sherwani, a kind of frock coat, while Lakshmi wore a purple bridal outfit, according to reports.

Rushdie slipped a shoe onto his wife?s foot, a traditional custom. He also arrived at the ceremony in the company of a child ? his son Milan ? a ritual which denoted fertility, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

The paper said guests included media couple Harold Evans and Tina Brown as well as David Bowie?s wife Iman, columnist Christopher Hitchens and writer Kathy Lette.

? I?ve made a lot of faux pas with some stars here and I want to make this apology to people like Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta. I asked Akshay, what do you do? He said, I?m an actor. And I said, what kind of actor? ?

? I was burnt by the Boom experience, I needed to go home and lick my wounds. But I?m planning to come back to India in the summer and I?d really be up for doing work here in Mumbai. ?

Source : Filmfare India