Desi Lara Croft obsessed with Aishwarya Rai

Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) Delhi girl Shweta Bhardwaj, who has been tagged as the 'desi Lara Croft' because of her action scenes in "Mission Istanbul", says she is obsessed with Aishwarya Rai.

"I am obsessed with her and was very sad to know that she got married," said the 21-year-old, adding "If I would have been a boy, I would have definitely married her."

"I envy Abhishek because he has married Aishwarya. I would have said the same thing if she would have married anyone else," Shweta, who debuts with "Mission Istanbul", told IANS.

Shweta says she did not have to struggle much to get the role in director Apoorva Lakhia's macho film "Mission Istanbul" that deals with global terrorism.

"My Nivea ad worked for me. Suniel Shetty (who is producing the film) saw me in the ad and called me for audition. I went through the normal audition process and after a few days I came to know through an SMS that I was selected for the role."

Shweta teams up with Vivek Oberoi, Zayed Khan, Suneil and others in the film and says her role is different from others.

"Normally, in a Hindi film a girl is not seen to perform stunts and action, but I have done all that for the film. Besides, I have a bit of romance and a song is also picturised on me. So I got to do everything in the film," said Shweta who plays Lisa Lobo in the action thriller that was shot in Istanbul.

"Lisa Lobo is very interesting character in the film. She plays cross with Zayed and Nikitin Dheer. Zayed is playing a positive role and Nikitin is the bad guy. I am in between the two because of a mission," said Shweta who is all praises for the director.

"Apoorva is the best guy in town. He helped me to understand the character so well. He used to always tell me that I should always have the character of Lara Croft in mind and behave like her. In every scene, he would tell me to think how Lara would behave in such a situation," said Shweta.

She says her favourite Hollywood actress is Angelina Jolie, who played the athletic character of Lara Croft in "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life".

Shweta had not taken any formal training in martial arts. She was trained on the sets by the action directors Javed-Aejaz. She hopes once the film releases, people start recognising her for her performance.

"Right now, people do not recognise me much, only a few say this is the Nivea girl. But, once 'Mission Istanbul' releases, I hope that people recognise me better," said Shweta who always aspired to be an actor.

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Mission Istanbul