Asin Bollywood Journey

Not many girls have journeyed from Changanacherry, Kerala, to Bollywood, with a surname that can be a tongue-twister in Mumbai – Thottumkal. But Asin Thottumkal has made a stylish entry.The 23-year-old actor, however, is the least bit convinced. Ask her about her performance in ‘Ghajini’ and she says. “I am not satisfied. I feel like doing this film all over again and working on my flaws,” she says, over the phone from Mumbai where she is spending holidays with her family. That’s strange, considering she has done the Tamil version of it as well. There must be something that she likes. “Well, I couldn’t have asked for a better start,” she says. “And I certainly didn’t expect to receive a thumbs-up from a national audience.” She is, in fact, on a roll. After romancing Aamir Khan in her first Hindi film, Thottumkal is shooting with Salman Khan for ‘London Dreams’.She says since she has already worked with the director AR Murugadoss, and she was comfortable in Hindi, the Bollywood debut was not too daunting. “But Aamir was the cherry on the cake,” she giggles.She was just three when Aamir came out with ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’ and she has danced in her school pinafores to ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ songs, but his ‘Ghajini’ role has won her over. “It has been a long time since one saw Aamir in an action film,” she says, before lapsing into reminiscing about the on-sets fun. “The crew was entirely from the South, so it felt like home. However, Aamir had a tough time understanding the conversations on the sets so I would become his translator. He even picked up a few Tamil words by the end,” she says. Asin Thottumkal is planning for a long haul in Bollywood. Get the hang of that surname.