If all had gone well Asin would have moved into her own home in Mumbai by now.
"But I’ve been traveling non-stop. I had no time time to look around and find a place. But now we’re finalizing a place in Bandra. Hopefully by new year I’ll lock in to the place.And we’ll move in. Right now we feel a little unsettled. In Mumbai you desperately need your own home."
Asin’s parents have moved from Chennai to Mumbai with her. "Both of them gave up their jobs to be with me. Mom is a doctor. She has taken voluntary retirement.
She manages my home now. And Dad had seven business enterprises. He gave them up to look after my career. Right now I’m quite a handful and worth more than all his business ventures."
And she bursts into peals of laughter.
Asin is a fun-loving extremely atypical South Indian who chatters non-stop, if allowed.
She admits she was asked to keep quiet. "The marketing team felt better that I keep my distance from the press until the film’s release. However that didn’t stop wildly-speculative writeups about me. I read things about myself that I didn’t know."
Like feeling insecure about her co-star Jiah Khan? "Is that really me? I’ve worked in South Indian films with female co-stars and never felt insecure. I worked with Nayantara in the Tamil Ghajini without my conflict.
Why would I feel threatened by Jiah? Was this a publicity strategy? It was being implied that I was somehow responsible for keeping Jiah out of the publicity. I don’t know how one heroine can influence a huge marketing strategy."
Jiah and Asin have no scenes together. "But we have of course met and we’re very cordial with one another. We got along fine. I’ve had no fights with any one in Tamil or Hindi cinema so far. All these stories of friction make me feel strange. I wonder who these people who spread such rumours are."
And no, Asin was under no contract with the Ghajini makers. "I’m under no contract. Didn’t I sign London Dreams while Ghajini was being shot?
If I haven’t signed another film, it’s because I haven’t come across anything exciting. I was supposed to do Priyadarshan’s film with Akshay Kumar. But that clashed with the Ghajini ’s promotional dates."
She will be moving into her new home in Bandra in January after the release of her first Hindi film Ghajini.
"But even without my own home I feel at home in Mumbai. For one almost the entire unit of Ghajini was South Indian. Most of them were people I had worked with. So we were constantly chattering on the sets in Tamil or Telugu. Except of course Aamir Khan who was new to all of us."
London Dreams was much tougher. "The total crew was totally Bollywood. So practically speaking London Dreams is my first Bollywood experience.
Ghajini was easier than my second Hindi film London Dreams where I had to start from scratch with the character. In Ghajini my character remained untampered except the language. Here I was speaking Hindi instead of Tamil. Otherwise no changes."
Her character is not the archetypal glamorous decorative doll. "I play a struggler in the ad world one of the many eager faces you see hanging out at ads shoots."
Asin’s Hindi has always been good and she won’t require any dubbing from outsiders, thank you.
How different is Aamir from Salman Khan? "While Aamir mulls overs scenes Salman must be prepared from beforehand. Because you don’t seem him rehearse on the sets. But everyone in Mumbai is thoroughly professional"
As for Mumbai being wary of stepping into theaters right now Asin exudes confidence. "I’m hoping by Christmas time they’d be enthused into watching an Aamir Khan film. I’m put in my best efforts in Ghajini."
