Actress Tanushree Dutta at Fusion on Friday evening. Picture by Rashbehari Das

Just another Bengali belle on the big screen or an actress of substance? Ask this of Tanushree Dutta and pat comes the reply:

“Ethnicity should not matter when one goes out to work. It is dedication and hard work that matter. But if you insist on checking the track record, apart from a few stray cases, Bengali girls have always done well in Bollywood. They have created a niche for themselves.”

The latest Bengali babe in Bollywood was in town exactly a week after her debut film Aashiq Banaya Apne hit the halls.

But the one-film-old girl from Jamshedpur is already bang in the middle of a mix-movie muddle. For, the Emraan Hashmi and Sonu Sood-starrer was not supposed to be Tanushree’s debut vehicle, Chocolate was.

So, the release of Aashiq Banaya Apne has left anything but a sweet taste in the mouth of Chocolate producer Vivek Agnihotri, who has gone ahead and chopped off some crucial scenes of Tanushree.

“Yes, Chocolate was the first movie that I signed and it was supposed to see the light of day before any other movie of mine,” admits Tanushree, who hit Fusion, the resto-bar at The Golden Park, on Friday night.

“Chocolate was a multi-starrer that was getting stuck for various reasons. Though it is important for me, I could not put my career on hold for one movie. Then came the offer to do Aashiq Banaya Apne where I was supposed to play the sole female protagonist. I grabbed it with both hands.”

And the scenes that have been snipped?

“He (Vivek) has chopped off a couple of kissing sequences. It is his movie, he can do what he wants. I took the decision I wanted to,” says the girl for whom taking decisions seem to come naturally.

Tanushree left her hometown as soon as she passed Class X. Next stop was Pune where she completed her plus-two. It was then time to pack her bags and head out to her dream destination: Mumbai.

“I had always dreamt of making it big in modelling. Though I was doing some work in Pune, it wasn’t taking me anywhere. So, I decided to head where the action was,” smiles she.

So what if the action involves skin show and lip locks? “Frankly speaking, there is no escaping it. It is part of the job and you have to do it,” says Tanushree, drawing every male gaze at Fusion, in a short black dress with plunging neckline.

But much to the disappointment of the men waiting to be floored, Tanushree refused to go dancing, choosing instead to be close to the DJ console and watching revellers go wild to Aapki kashish, Mummy ko nahin hai pata and Jhuki jhuki ? hit numbers from her two films.