'Not much has changed, except vital statistics'

With a Nobel prize winner for a father, Nandana Sen is not your usual Bollywood actress. Even the movies she's done --Ketan Mehta's Rang Rasiya is coming up -- are well off the beaten track. From working with UNICEF to doing her own stunts, there's more than meets the eye with Nandana. Read to see why.

Intelligence is something that runs in your family. What was growing up like for you? Were you the geeky kid who ended up being the beautiful swan?

I'm not sure about the swan bit but geeky kid for sure. With glasses so thick they were almost opaque, book surgically glued to my hand, limbs completely uncoordinated with each other. Not much has changed, except vital statistics...

Text and Photographs courtesy: Maxim India

You're involved in a lot of social causes. Is it protocol or are you really involved in all of them?

The NGOs I'm associated with are an integral part of my life. I am working with UNICEF as an advocate for child education and child protection and I'll be working intensively in its campaign against corporal punishment.

I recently filmed Chuppee, a short feature sponsored by UNIFEM, to raise awareness about CSA (child sexual abuse). My work with RAHI, set up to stop CSA started way back, when I played the traumatised protagonist of the play 30 Days in September, sponsored by RAHI.

So you believe child abuse affects a man's sexual identitiy later in life. How is that possible? 

For male survivors, the biggest hurdle in the way of healing is their reluctance to talk about it. Majority of men are conditioned to identify themselves as aggressive and powerful rather than passive and helpless. In our culture, a 'real' man is expected never to be a 'victim,' but to protect himself and deal with it "like a man". He is expected to avenge or forget the hurt and move on, lest he be seen as a "coward."  Acknowledging that he was sexually abused becomes a major threat to a man's masculinity. (If the man was abused by an older woman as a child, the myth is -- he ought to have been sexually eager and willing. In case he was abused by a man, there's concern about being labeled as gay.)

To avoid seeing themselves as victims, men never break the silence; instead, they act out in ways that make it extremely difficult for them to have functional relationships. Some get unhealthily aggressive, some become homophobic, almost all experience great confusion over their sexual identities and orientation. Disastrously, masculinity and power often get confused with abusiveness.

After all this amazing work, why would you choose to be part of Bollywood, which doesn't need an IQ after all? In fact, isn't being brainy in the Indian glam biz a bit of a disadvantage?

Frequently! (Laughs) For many in the biz, it is inexplicable and intimidating. For some, it's quaint if utterly unnecessary. For a handful, it's an asset albeit complicated.

Of course I am generalising. But from where I stand, I must say that acting wouldn't have been such a draw for me had my parents not been so academic, and had I not been so nerdy and cerebral as a child.

What's your typical kind of man -- a cerebral recluse or a dumb party boy?

Geez, ain't it just like a man to reduce the world into binary opposites? My kind of guy is totally fun-loving with a brain as alive as his conscience and his hormones.

Maxim Naughty Question: Name one woman you would turn lesbian for.

Aung San Suu Kyi. Beautiful and brave beyond belief. Been madly in love with her for years.

We fell for you the moment we heard you dig comics as much as we do? Which superhero would you gladly go home with?

Spidey's generally been my all-time favourite. A geek who can fly. Any regular chick's fantasy, right? (Smiles)