Rimi Sen has been keeping a very low profile these days, despite her next release 'Phir Hera Pheri' being up for release. TWF correspondent Vickey Lalwani catches up her.

Q: Why are keeping a low profile? Your 'Phir Hera Pheri' is up for release?
A: At the end of the day, my work must speak for itself. I've never been the sort to cultivate the media or attend parties to be seen and written about.

If I don't have a release, what do I talk about in my interviews? I'd rather speak when I have a film. I've come up the hard way and know what it takes to reach where I've reached.

Q: Are you shying away from the media because there have been rumours linking you to stars' secretary Rikku's son, Karan Nath. Comment.
A: I do not know whether to laugh or cry. I hardly know Karan Nath. I only met him six months ago at Rikkuji's office, when I had gone there for some work. After that, I met him at the gym where I work out.

I have never met him again, except perhaps, occasionally, at a common friend's wedding if I remember correctly. So how can I have a relationship with him? We had simply posed together for photo-sessions for a film.

Q: How can there be smoke without fire?
A: Pardon me but that's exactly what I want to ask. How can I be linked with someone I don't even know well? I don't even know where these rumours are coming from. I hope this statement of mine will set the record straight.

Q: Are you disappointed at not being a part of 'Dhoom 2'?
A: No regrets. I do not have a role in 'Dhoom 2', because it is a completely different story.

Q: Still, you looked so good in 'Dhoom 2'. Wasn't your first reaction an emotion of some disappointment and hurt?
A: Look, Abhishek does not have a wife in this film, like he did in the original Dhoom. They have many new characters in 'Dhoom 2'. There's Aishwarya, there's Hrithik. On the same lines, even John Abraham is absent.

Q: Instead, you are a part of 'Phir Hera Pheri'?
A: Exactly, because the story of this sequel is something into which I fitted. Today, film-makers do not pick up actors for just the heck of it or on personal equations. I admit that the girls don't have much to do in the film, as it was in 'Hera Pheri', but it's a fun role, nevertheless.

I hope that the audiences love the sequel as much as they had appreciated the first movie. I hope that it is as big a hit as the original.

Q: You are often confused with actress Reema Sen?
A: Yes, and I am really fed up by now. The irony being that my real name is not Rimi, but Shoumitra, which I do not use because it is so unusual.

Q: Reema Sen was in a controversy, recently...
A: (Interrupts) I was really scared when I was mistaken for Reema Sen in the recent controversy about certain obscene pictures. I even got calls from some people enquiring that how I could pose for such pictures.

Q: You have worked with Akshaye Khanna, Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan in your first few films themselves. How does it feel?
A: What more could I have asked for? I must be God's gifted child. I have to thank all my producers and directors who had faith in me, and even the big actors who had no qualms in pairing up opposite me. That really helped me. I didn't have to start my career doing B and C grade films.

Q: Kajol, Rani Mukerji, Bipasha Basu and now Rimi Sen. Bengali women are making it real big?
A: I can't even think of comparing myself to these women. They're far ahead of me. But, yes, Bengalis in general are very inclined towards performing arts.

Look at filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Mrinal Sen - they're all geniuses. And, Bengali women are indeed talented as far as music, dance, theatre and cinema are concerned (smiles).

Q: Are you going slow? Shouldn't you have been signing films left, right and centre?
A: Well, I am choosy. I could have done five more films by now, if I had accepted everything that came my way. Plus let us not forget that Bollywood is a male-dominated world. There are more roles for men than for women, plus a lot of females have jumped into this world and made it rather crowded.