"When I was growing up in Calcutta there was this thing that because dad was an Engineer I must be an Engineer but when I professed a desire to study medicine my parents supported me. But after class 12th my destiny took me elsewhere. I'd just finished my Board exams and had gone out for lunch with my friends at Park street. They were having the preliminaries for the Ford Supermodel contest in Calcutta, Somebody spotted me at lunch and told me to participate in the preliminaries. I replied I don't know what to do. I was told 'you just fill a form'. I did and was selected. 15 girls were selected I told my mum I'm going for a friend's birthday party. I dressed up and went for it but with no idea that anything would come off it.

But then Mehr Jesia called my mother in two days time and told her that I'd have to go to Mumbai-I was selected and would have to stay in Mumbai for a month. The training would take place there. I requested and cajoled my parents to let me go; in any case I had vacations. Anyway they let me go. I stayed at the Resort and then at the Taj. We were supposed to be getting trained but we were having a lot of fun eating, going out, partying-so many girls -22 girls together. I didn't think I'd win but I did inspite of so many things like my eye problem. Then I went to New York for the Internationals and that's when I decided that I wanted to model. I told my parents I'm not coming back. I stayed back for 7 months. My mother thought that this is what I want to do but dad was angry with me for over a year. But then I returned to Mumbai and started doing well for myself and now they're fine with my choice of career.

I went to Paris but came back. I decided that India is a better place for me to model because I didn't want to go through all the tension of the color problem etc. It was quite irritating being there. Work was good but I knew I wouldn't become famous. So I decided that it's better to be a queen in Mumbai rather than a small fish there. So I'm here.

Acting too just came my way on it's own. Jaya Bachchan and JP Dutta for Aakhri Mughal called me initially but I didn't think I'd like acting. I didn't think I could act or wanted to act but they convinced me that I could. That's the time that the germ entered my brain. But nothing came off it and I went back to modeling. Then Ajnabee was offered to me. That's the time I was actually thinking of doing something else. I wasn't tired of modeling but I was bored and I felt stagnant. I was thinking of getting into the restaurant business, meeting people to get ideas, Dino's brother has a brother in Berlin who has a restaurant. I was really getting into it. "

That's the time when Ajnabee was offered to me. I listened to the script and said okay. It was something different to do and I said okay- I liked the script and that's why I agreed to take a negative role. If I had made a planned move into Bollywood I wouldn't have done so. That's what I feel in hindsight. But people accepted me in Ajnabee itself though the film didn't do so well. I was quite shocked because the good always gets the sympathy but somehow people saw the good in me. Then Raaz came to me and it was too good a role to let go and by then something had changed. I really started enjoying acting and I've really started giving it my all. I'm enjoying it that's why I'm acting. I don't need it, I'm not ambitious. Being a newcomer I still ask for my seven days off in a month and I don't want my work to become a pressure on me. I really enjoy each character I'm playing. I didn't know what Raaz would become. We knew we had a different film in hand and we worked really hard.

We'd be in this awful cold in Ooty out in the night shooting in strange hours. Everyone had put in so much effort. Vikram Bhatt worked hard. Raaz was liked because it was a different subject, it was supernatural but I don't think more films on the subject would do well. Perhaps if we make a sequel it'll do well but not anybody else. It's a one off thing. People wont accept such films easily. But after Raaz one nice thing has happened that people accept that I can act. Even after Ajnabee everyone said that I was confident as a newcomer but I know I didn't put in my best in Ajnabee but after Raaz everyone realizes that I know my job and will do my best, that I am a keen learner. The kinds of offers, which have come to me, are very different. I'd expected that being a model I'd get only glamour roles dancing roles. Though I love dancing, I find the choreographed dancing of our films very difficult to do. But it's all been positive.

From the time I've come in the industry, there's been growth, it's not been sudden but that's good I feel. If you go up with your first film it's scary because expectations from you go up but like this I'm growing as I'm living watching people, in my relationships in life and I know all this will help me mature as an actress and I'll know my characters better with age, time and experience in acting.
Today when I see a new script my reaction depends on what is offered. I don't like to play the simple sweet girl. Because I'm like that and it's no fun doing what you are, I'm still open to negative roles though I don't have any at the moment. I'd like to do a central negative character not a vamp. I'm playing a cop, a psycho, I'm doing love stories but they're all strong characters.

Being in the industry has its own pros and cons. I still have to discover that-I seemed to have by passed all that. I 've got to work with really nice people. My interaction with the industry has been good till now- I haven't yet understood the do's and don't I am also the kind of person who cant be taught a new set of rules. I have my own and I follow them. No matter what is written about me. I know what I am, my friends know and that's enough for me.