The many faces of Manisha: The Times of India

Dec 01: Meet Manisha Koirala, sporting a couple of scars on her face and hands and her huge British boyfriend of African origin, Cecil. On a visit last week to Bangalore the Bollywood actress looked her simple, but radiant self. She was here to promote the very film that gave her those scars. With this latest venture, the actress marks her debut as a producer in the industry.
"I was riding on a horse cart when the cart toppled over. In addition to these scars, I had a back injury. That, of course, is much better now, but I hope the scars disappear soon too," she smiles.
With the accident and all, Manisha seems to have lost a lot of weight as well. She says, "It is necessary for any artiste to look the part he or she is playing. While some roles require you to look slim and pretty, there are some roles where you can and sometimes need to look fat and ugly as well."

The actress continues, "Unfortunately, in our film industry, an actress is supposed to look slim all the time. I don't think that is necessary." Referring to the movies made in the West, Manisha says, "Look at some of the best movies made in Hollywood... Tom Hanks is so different in Forrest Gump when compared to his role in Cast Away, and he gains and loses weight for the role as required. Such perfection is not possible in Bollywood as we are involved with around four or five films at one time," she explains.

With the market now opening up to new concepts and story ideas, Manisha seems to be making full use of the opportunity to produce an off-beat but fun woman-oriented film. "Most of the woman-oriented films have some form of trauma attached to them. I want to work with scripts that allow a woman of today to be herself and have fun at that. There is nothing wrong with portraying reality and I am sure the audience is ready for films based on real life and reality," she says.

Keeping with the theme, Manisha is all set to produce a Hindi family drama series on television. "There will be nothing in the serial that could be derogatory to women as is the case with some of the serials on air today," she asserts.
After turning producer, Manisha has her eyes set on directing as well. So fans can wait to see the actress in yet another new avataar.