/> Playing a lousy actor is not an easy thing to do. Preity Zinta and Arshad Warsi have done it in Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear and Neeraj Vora's Short Cut.

Now it's Mallika Sherawat's turn to play a member of the world's hammiest theatre group in the world in Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam.

And apparently Mallika has done a splendid job.However at the moment her morale is shaken.

According to people who know her Mallika is shattered by the boxoffice performance of Ugly Aur Pagli and has gone into a shell.

Says a co-star, "Mallika had given the film her best shot, and was expecting it to be a glorious follow-up to Pyar Ke Side Effects. The poor show of the film has effected her. She's no longer that confident of her next release Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam."

And now Mallika has a harder task ahead. She has to prove hersels playing a part of what is described in the film as the worst theatre company in the universe.

So in essence Mallika has to play a bad actress in Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam Rahul Bose who has done two films with Mallika feels she has immense talent.

"Mallika is part of the theatre repertory in Maan Gaye.. In fact all the principal actors Mallika, Paresh Rawal(who plays her husband), Kay Kay Menon and Zakir Hussain are part of the theatre group.

I am not part of the theatre group. I'm a RAW agent who needs to save the world by taking the help of theatre company containing probably the world's worst actors.So the world's worst theatre group is helping me to save the world."

In essence brilliant actors like Paresh and KK are required to ham it up.

Laughs Rahul, "The only thing that this theatre group can do effectively on stage is a rendition of K Asif's film Mughal-e-Azam. That's where my Salim act with Anarkali comes in. I am only fantasizing about being on stage with Mallika."

Rahul has never done broad comedy before. "And I'm delighted by how good Mallika is at comedy. I'm the guy who tries to get her attention right under her husband Paresh Rawal's nose."

It's Mallika's Murder in a mirthful milieu.

Incidentally the letter 'm' Mallika once agreed with me, was lucky for her. Her first hit was Murder. Her mentor was Mahesh Bhatt. And her first international break was in The Myth.