Mahima Choudhary with Vivek Oberoi and Ayesha Takia in Home Delivery

What made you sign a quirky comedy like Home Delivery?

It is my first attempt at comedy. Having done a lot of issue-based cinema and many serious films, I am finally doing something light. In my earlier movies, I have spoken against dowry, been involved in love triangles and chased straying husbands.

Even in Priyadarshan?s Yeh Tera Ghar, Yeh Mera Ghar, which was a comedy, I had a serious role. So this is my first real fun film.

But it?s not your standard Bollywood comedy?

Yes, it?s very screwballish, not slapstick at all. You have such a talented director and such a great entourage of actors. The whole set-up was so huge that it was a pleasure playing the part.

Weren?t there many big names in the fray for your role?

Sujoy (Ghosh) is a great friend and when he came to me with the role, it was so brilliant I prayed to God that it goes to someone else. I told Sujoy, you must get someone fantastic to play the role. I was really under-confident. The problem with us actors is that we always hope that something different will come about and when something different does come, we do na-na, ni-ni? My sister then told me to go for it and here I am.

You play an actress named Maya in the film. How different is she from you?

Maya is a north Indian actress who?s made it big in the south. So, her attitude is very different. She is a narcissist? obsessed with herself and very self-driven. There is a lot of innocence in her, yet she is very passionate. I am very self-conscious but Maya is not. She is just full of herself.

You have also played an actress in Tanuja Chandra?s Film Star?

Yes, but the genres of the two films are so very different. There I play a north Indian actress who takes up another issue and is largely sad and lonely. But in Home Delivery I have a very flamboyant approach to things.

So did you model yourself on any famous actress for the role?

Not really. The way Sujoy has sketched her character, it became very easy for me. He deliberately made her a big actress from the south so that she looks larger than life. Actresses from the north are identifiable, but down south you are worshipped and temples are made for you. This iconic quality was a must for Maya?s character? Sujoy has made me wear a lot of colourful 70s costumes to get into the role.

You share screen space with Ayesha Takia. Were there fireworks on and off the sets?

Ayesha is a very good girl. We had a nice time off-screen because we hardly have any scenes together. Just one little song where we both appear. It?s only when she leaves the apartment where she is living in with Vivek (Oberoi) that I walk in.

Before Home Delivery, there?s The Film?

That I did for another friend, the film?s director Junaid Menon. It is in fact very much in flavour with what is happening this week with Abu Salem. In The Film, a struggling bunch of people pose as the biggest dons of Mumbai to extract money from producers and make their own film. So when the real Shameenbhai gets to know, he wants to know who?s spoiling his name. Oblivious to all this, police want to catch up with the bhai. It?s a very dark comedy.

What else is in your kitty?

I just shot for an English film in the UK called Pusher, which is a term to refer to drug peddlers. It looks at the Indo-Pak community in the UK and how a lot of youngsters there are getting into drugs. Then there?s Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana with Rekha and my other English film, Tanuja?s Hope And A Little Sugar. And, of course, there?s my first attempt at Bengali cinema with Kaushik Ganguly, which should start anytime now.