Emma Brown Garrett, the brunette from Australia debuting in Tollywood with Gaurav Pandey’s Shukno Lanka, has gone blonde for Bollywood! In town for the film’s premiere, Emma tells t2 how she bonded with ‘Mithunda’ and why she wants to do more Tolly films...

You look completely different from your character in Shukno Lanka...

Yes, I have dyed my long black hair and become a blonde! I had to sport this look for two films I am shooting in Bombay — Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maro Dum with Bipasha Basu and Abhishek Bachchan, where I play a Russian girl, and Samir Karnik’s Yamla Pagla Deewana where I play Sunny Deol’s firang wife! There’s Dharmendra and Bobby Deol in the film too.

Has it become easier to get work in Mumbai after changing your looks?

Not really. There are lots of foreigners coming to Bombay nowadays, so there’s tough competition. You have to be different from the rest and because you are a foreigner, you are the minority so the struggle is double. But since I wanted to establish myself as an actress I had to wait. I came to Bombay exactly two-and-a-half years ago with my husband Cameron Garrett, who is in finance, and we have no plans of going back to Australia.

But you are debuting with a Bengali film. Do you wish it was a Hindi film instead?

When I came to Bombay from Australia looking for work, I had no idea that I would actually debut in a Bengali film. But I consider myself lucky to have bagged my first film with Mithun Chakraborty who is an icon and is almost worshipped in Bengal! Mithunda is fantastic in front of the camera. I got to learn a lot from him. I also gelled very well with Sabyasachi (Chakraborty)... there was an instant chemistry and director Gaurav Pandey was very happy. Work apart, I loved the food served on the sets and I became a Mishti Doi addict! And oh, I picked up a bit of Bengali too... like ‘Aapni kemon achhen’! Working in Tollywood has been fantastic.

You play a film producer in Shukno Lanka...

Yes, her name is Isabella. She admires the director of the film, played by Sabyasachi. She looks up to him and at the same time she is also intrigued by a junior artiste (Mithun Chakraborty) who’s acting in the film within the film. She feels lucky to be associated with the team.... I expect Shukno Lanka to do really well. I expect to be recognised because the film is releasing nationally (in Mumbai and Delhi apart from Calcutta). I hope I get to do another Bengali film!