Beautiful Asin is most of the screen divas in Bollywood

Having stormed Telugu and Tamil cinema Asin has now moved to Mumbai conquer the Hindi belt.

And if the growing buzz is to be believed, after Hema Malini, Rekha and Sridevi, Asin Thottumkal is poised to be the next Bollywood diva from the South.

Tell her this, and Asin laughs in delight and embarrassment. "I admire the names you’ve mentioned. I’m a long way from getting anywhere near them. I thought I was fairly unknown in Mumbai.

I guess I’m lucky. But yes I feel hugely welcome in Mumbai. I don’t know why filmmakers are showing so much interest in me. I guess they must’ve seen my work in Tamil and Telugu.

Spirited spunky and Beautiful Asin (pronounced Ah-sin) has a better sense of humour than most of the screen divas in Bollywood.

"Thanks for pronouncing my name correctly. Most people tend to give it an Islamic spin. ’Asin’ is coined from Sanskrit and English. It means ’sinless’ like ’Amala’….without blemish. I hope I live up to my name in Mumbai."

For now Mumbai is home. "I’m in Mumbai now. I thought that was the practical thing to do. But only because my immediate commitments are in Mumbai. I’m the brand ambassador for six multi-national companies and the ads need to be shot in Mumbai. Now there’re the Hindi films."

Luckily Asin speaks Hindi without an accent. "I can manage it quite well. And I don’t have a thick South Indian accent. In these days of globalization I don’t think language is a barrier.

And I’m only looking for good roles regardless of the language. I’m interested in films in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and any other language as long as the projects are exciting. I look at the script, then the role, director, banner and finally my co- star."

Since she has moved to Mumbai there’re rumours in the South that she’s giving up on South Indian cinema.

"That’s completely untrue. Whatever I’m today is because of Tamil and Telegu cinema. Why am I expected to choose between Mumbai and the South?"

Asin is equally popular in Tamil and Telugu cinema. "I speak both languages fluently and do all my dubbing myself. I’ve never used a dubbing artiste for any of my films, not even for the Hindi ads that I’ve done. And I’m speaking in my own voice in my first Hindi film Ghajini. It’s in sync-sound, so there was no choice."

With such a hectic 3-language cinematic career when and where does Asin get the chance to be normal?She laughs musically, "I guess I’m pretty normal and grounded. Because of the so-called stardom down South people expect me to behave in a particular way. And they’re disappointed when I don’t."