Former Miss India and Bollywood actress Celina Jaitley couldn’t have asked for more. First she landed a role in Hollywood film "Quest of Sheherzade" and now she will team up with Oscar winner Sean Connery in the international project based on "Arabian Nights".
"Quest of Sheherzade" is scheduled to go on floors in January and also stars Orlando Bloom of "Pirates Of The Caribbean" fame. It will be directed by Ken Khan, the technical director of fantasy adventure film "Lord of the Rings".
"Sean Connery is there in the film and recently Orlando Bloom was also signed. I am playing an important character of an Iranian princess, " Celina told.
"The story is based on Arabian Nights and they are planning to start the shooting from January next year. I am in a contract and can’t talk much about the movie, " she said.
"Quest of Sheherzade" is not her first international project. Celina plays the lead in New Zealand-Australian venture "Love Has No Language" by the same director.
In "Love Has No Language", the former Miss India is cast as an Indian girl born and brought up in New Zealand. She is cast opposite Australian actor Ben Mitchell.
"It was very difficult to speak in Kiwi English as they speak in a completely difficult and weird accent. Neither do they speak like Australians nor like the British, " Celina said.
"It took me 10 days to sit constantly with my trainer to learn the correct accent. She sat with me day and night and spoke to me in her accent which made it possible for me to get it right, " Celina added.
Celina said though she is working in Hollywood films, her first love will always be the Hindi film industry.
"For me Bollywood is my priority. This is where I was born and I want to die. It gives me maximum pleasure dancing and singing. In fact, I was missing song sequences when I was shooting for ’Love has..’, " said the actress, who debuted with "Janasheen" in 2003.
The film bombed at the box office but she kept getting offers and featured in films like "No Entry", "Zinda", "Tom, Dick and Harry" and "Apna Sapna Money Money".
She feels her performance in Vikram Bhatt’s "Red" helped her bag the international projects as the makers of the movies signed her after seeing the film that also starred Aftab Shivdasani.
"I was very hurt when ’Red’ did not work. I took it personally and thought I wasn’t ready for serious films, " said Celina, who will also be seen in Rohit Shetty’s comedy "Golmaal Returns".
Celina thinks comedy is her forte and does not want to experiment much with other genres.
"I am good at comedy and people have also liked me in comedy films. So why should I experiment with other things? I am satisfied and happy doing comedies; so are my fans.
" ’No Entry’, ’Apna Sapna Money Money’, ’Golmaal Returns’ are my best films till date. In these three films, I loved my character. I feel the same for ’Golmaal Returns’ too."
In "Golmaal Returns", Celina plays a de-glamourised South Indian girl, who is in love with a Marathi guy, played by Shreyas Talpade.
"I think people will definitely like and enjoy our love track as it is really funny, " she said.
The other projects Celina has signed on include Mukta Arts’ "Paying Guest" and "Hello Darling", Aditya Datt’s "Chaai Garam", Tigmanshu Dhulia’s "Showman" and Ashtavinayak’s "Run Bhola Run".
