'I desperately need a hit'

Former Miss India (2004) Sayali Bhagat has not been as lucky yet as other pageant winners, who have gone on to make successful careers in Bollywood.

But this Nasik-born girl is patiently waiting for her turn in the sun. Daughter of a legal advisor and school principal, Sayali will be seen in this Friday's Paying Guest, also starring Shreyas Talpade, Jaaved Jaffrey, Aashish Chowdhary, Vatsal Seth, Riya Sen, Neha Dhupia and Celina Jaitely.

Sayali was earlier seen in Shyam Bajaj's production The Train (2007), starring Emraan Hashmi.

"Films were never my main motive. But after I became Miss India, I started getting offers," Sayali says.

The actress tells Patcy N that Paying Guest will tickle your funny bone.

Tell us about your role in Paying Guest.

I play a TV channel head. Jaaved Jaffrey works in my company, and I'm in love with him. I try to help him with his Paying Guest accommodation and also see to it that he gets money to pay his rent. I help him, and Shreyas Talpade, to cross-dress like women. I sneak outfits for them.

It was a great experience working with him. He has great comic timing and talent. You can learn from him.

Comedy is all about good timing, so he taught me that. He would stress on not referring to written dialogues and tell me to improvise on the spot to make it look more natural. He has done some good comedy films, including Dhamaal, written by Paritosh Painter. He gave me tips during our rehearsals.

He has great comic timing in real life too and he's a very happy person. So even offscreen, he would make life very simple and pleasant. He would spice up every small moment with his one-liners. I had a fantastic time working with him.

I share screen space with Paintalji too. He plays my father. We have a lot of differences in the film -- as he is anti-Jaaved. He doesn't even like Jaaved's friends, Shreyas Talpade, Aashish Choudhary and Vatsal Seth.

I have seen Paritosh's plays, Bottoms Up and Three is a Crowd. So I had seen his capabilities as a director. He can do comedy very well so I knew he would do a great job. Obviously, we had Subhash Ghai's guidance on the sets. So it was a great combination that worked.

Which was your toughest scene?

The toughest scene was when a cross-dressed Jaaved is accusing my father of raping him. I had a tough time because in the scene, my boyfriend is accusing my father of rape. So I had to show confused emotions. That was difficult. This is also my favourite scene as it came out really well.

I have done a lot of daredevil acts in my life like bungee jumping, scuba-diving, movie stunts... But the most horrifying thing that I've done was when I danced in Bangkok's Patpong street. It's a red light area, and we had to dance there. There were so many people looking at us. It was scary but at the same time, quite funny.

Once, we shot a song wearing school uniforms. After the shoot, all of us went out for dinner and then to a pub nearby to party. But we weren't allowed entry, as we were dressed in school uniforms. They thought we are school kids and so, under age. After that, we tried to bully some people!

What are your forthcoming films?

My film Kirkit released last week. Besides Paying Guest, I am working on Wilson Louis' horror film, Shout, and Vinod Pandey's comedy Chaloo Movie.

After The Train, I had two releases -- Halla Bol and Good Luck. Unfortunately, they did not work and weren't marketed well either. So people think that I was not doing any films. I did a Telugu film Blade Babji and a Tamil film Newtonin Moondram Vidhi too. 

Honestly, I should not be greedy. I should have got more films. But anyway, I'm doing four films a year, and am happy with what I'm getting. But I desperately need a hit.