Onjolee Nair and Dino Morea in a moment from Holiday

It?s not every Friday that you have two new releases directed by women. Keeping Aparna Sen?s 15 Park Avenue company on January 6 will be Pooja Bhatt?s Holiday, a bid to make people fall in love with themselves. But before her ?celebration of flaws? hits the theatres, the producer-director was in Calcutta on Tuesday to promote what she calls her ?most autobiographical film? till date.

?I have always wanted to find my own voice and get acceptance from my father and so does the main character in Holiday,? explains Pooja. ?It tells you not to change yourself and try to be like the next person, but rather to rediscover yourself.?

As part of Fame?s (Hiland Park) now-famous star visits, Pooja was accompanied to the city by her lead pair of Dino Morea and Onjolee Nair. The actress-turned-film-maker was, of course, effusive in her praise for the two actors ? ?I cannot imagine anyone else doing Dino?s role and I have signed him on for my next film which is also based on dance. As for Onjolee, she is the best actress I have worked with, since Kajol.?

Onjolee, half-Bengali, joined the Holiday cast a couple of days into the shooting schedule in Goa, when Pooja?s cousin Smilie ?couldn?t deliver? despite an eight-month training workshop. ?Onjolee came in under controversial circumstances but I had to acknowledge my mistake at that juncture,? reveals Pooja.

For Onjolee, Holiday was the best thing that could have happened to her. ?I was always into singing and dance but had done only stage theatre. So when someone like Pooja gave me such a big opportunity, I immediately agreed because I knew that she would be able to bring out the best in me,? she smiles.

Despite staying in Mumbai all along, Onjolee considers herself very much a Bengali. ?My mother is still angry with me that I gave up Rabindrasangeet. My grandfather, grandmother, sister... they are all still in Calcutta. Didima thakte thakte amake ekta Bangla film kortei hobe,? she says in fluent Bengali.

For Dino, too, Holiday means a lot. ?I would go on to say that this film will mark my second innings,? he says. ?We have got a beautiful movie in our hands. The kind of hard work we have put into the film, I am sure we will get some fruit or the other at the end of it all.?

Holiday will also present a different Pooja Bhatt to the audiences this Friday. Known for her skin flicks, this one, the maker feels, is of the youth, by the youth and for the youth. ?I have reworked the age-old fable of an ugly duckling turning into a swan,? reveals Pooja, who had husband Manish Makhija accompanying her to Calcutta. ?So, contrary to popular perception, Holiday is not a remake of Dirty Dancing. Come on, there are only eight classic styles of film-making and this is just one of them.?

Having got a warm and favourable reception in Pakistan at the Kara Film Festival, Pooja now hopes that her Holiday turns out to be another sleeper hit like her cousin Mohit Suri?s Zeher and Kalyug in 2005.

But there is a difference between the two, feels Pooja. ?I am not here to promote my family, I am here to promote talent. If I have to accommodate members of my family, I won?t be able to be true to myself or my work,? she says, referring to Smilie?s ouster from Holiday.