Do you notice a common male response to feminine beauty?

Yes. The moment I walk into a room, most men are expecting a beautiful woman, not necessarily an intelligent one. And more often than not, they are quite stumped when I make intelligent conversation. They are quite unprepared for it; they have come to ogle.

How comfortable are you with male attention?

Being a pretty face does open doors for you but I don’t dwell upon it. At the end of the day, what matters is whether I am comfortable in my own skin.

You have often said you grew up as a tomboy. Did that help you understand men better?

I am very straightforward. I have been associated with the glamour industry since I was 16 years old. I hate playing coy. I have never believed that men and women can’t be friends. In certain situations, I even think like a man. For men, most things are either black or white. For instance, they are either hungry or they are not, whereas a woman may say, ‘I am not hungry but I could be convinced to eat’.

Do you think platonic relationships are a myth?

I come from a family of three girls and no brothers. I have found friendship and solace from my men friends.

In your hit film No Entry, can you understand Esha’s decision to forgive and forget her husband Salman’s philandering ways?

There are many women who turn a blind eye to whatever their husbands are doing because they desperately want to hang in there.

In No Entry, the men also compare their wives to cars. How did you react to that?

The men in the film were the kind who would talk like that.

When you work in such a film, do you worry that you may be giving tacit encouragement to regressive notions?

Honestly, the mind is such a powerful thing that no matter what you do, you are not going to be able to stop those who think on these lines from continuing to do so.

In your debut film Andaaz, much hullabaloo was created over a widow’s remarriage...

Andaaz was pretty much old school Hindi cinema. I think in today’s day and date, women are making their choices, evidenced by the way the divorce rate in India has gone up. At the same time, I guess, this is also more of a metropolitan phenomenon. The urban outlook is much broader than the way the interiors of India view things. In smaller towns, people still adhere staunchly to rules laid down by society.

Don’t you have an issue with roles that reinforce dated viewpoints?

No, because on screen I am representing the thoughts of the character, not the thoughts of Lara Dutta. But if I feel that even the character that I am asked to portray wouldn’t react in a particular fashion, I do draw my director’s attention to it.

What are the hazards of working in a male-dominated industry where women are seen through a prism?

I rue the fact that I wasn’t an actress in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. Nutan, Nargis and Waheeda Rehman were brilliant actresses who got author-backed roles. By the 1970s, women were reduced to decorative pieces.

But directors also complain that they don’t think of such women characters because today’s actresses lack the calibre of a Nargis or a Nutan...

I don’t agree. Look around, there is a lot of talent. But where are the opportunities? I do feel underutilised as an actress. I haven’t done any work yet that I can proudly proclaim as “great”.

Do attractive women find it more difficult to be taken seriously by men?

It’s a Catch 22 situation. An attractive woman hates being tagged as a hot babe. But the moment she asserts her need to be recognised as a (thinking) person, men get intimidated. And then she is dubbed a snob. I think men should be grateful to a woman who knows what she wants.