Sanjay Gupta and I are just friends: Sameera

Jun 8, 2007 Subhash K. Jha

Mumbai, June 8 (IANS) Sameera Reddy, who no longer features in any of Sanjay Gupta's production plans, said she never had a relationship with the producer and that they were just friends.

"What relationship? We never had anything to do with each other beyond friendship. I'll always be grateful to Sanjay Gupta and his company for giving me a role like 'Musafir' so early in my career," Sameera told IANS.

Sameera featured in Gupta's 'Musafir' and 'Plan' but is missing from his recent release 'Shootout at Lokhandwala'. The crime thriller features Aarti Chabaria, Diya Mirza and Neha Dhupia and is doing good business at the box office.

"As for why I don't feature in any of their new projects, there has to be something that suits me. But it's thanks to the confidence shown by directors as diverse as Gupta and Buddhadeb Dasgupta that I'm able to dabble in comedy for the first time in Abbas-Mustan's 'Race'," said Sameera.

Wasn't that Mallika Sherawat's role to begin with? "It might have been. But now it's mine. And that's what counts," she said.

Sameera, who was seen in Ahmed Khan's recently released 'Fool N Final', didn't gain much from the film because she was ignored in the promotional campaigns.

"I think they wanted me to be the surprise element in the film," she said.

"I did it only for Ahmed Khan who is a dear friend. When he asked me to help him out in 'Fool N Final' it was meant to be just a song and some dialogues. This finally got stretched into quite a lengthy part," she added.

"Look, there are no leads and supporting roles any more. I saw 'Cheeni Kum' and I saw it as an example of how far our cinema has come. Look at Mr. Bachchan rocking the screen at 64. And look at Tabu standing tall. What a journey she has made in her career! I'd like my career to be like hers or Smita Patil's. That is why I'm working with directors as diverse as Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Ahmed Khan.

"It's no longer about the size of the role. I've done a 12-minute-film on AIDS for Mira Nair called 'Migration', produced by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. My greatest reward was when someone like Vishal Bhardwaj saw Mira's film and congratulated me," said Sameera.

Mira's 'Migration' is the second film after 'Musafir' where Sameera has replaced Priyanka Chopra.