by Subhash K Jha

Soha Ali Khan's just back from an eight-day holiday in London with her family, and feeling quite kicked with life.

Less than a year after her debut, Sharmila Tagore and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi's daughter has bagged a double role in Aparna Sen's next.

"And the best part is, mom is part of the film too. So it will be great fun to shoot," the actress gushes. "It will also be my first film with a female director, and I'm really looking forward to being directed by a woman."

Soha garnered rave reviws for her performance as the stifled, feudal bride, in Rituparno Ghosh's Antar Mahal. How did the actress handle the explicit scenes with Jackie Shroff? "They may look difficult to a spectator," Soha says, "but they weren't that tough. Rituda showed me exactly what to do.

Jackie was far more nervous and embarrassed than I was. He told my mother he'd never be able to do those scenes if she was around on the sets.... Rituda took very good care of me and everybody except the immediate crew and cast was ordered off of the set."

Soha has had two antithetical releases in the same week. "I know," she chuckles.

"They don't get any more dissimilar than Shaadi No 1 and Antar Mahal. But I enjoyed doing Shaadi No 1 — it took me to an entirely different world, completely removed from my own personality, just like Antar Mahal. I was keen to work with David Dhawan; he's done such funny comedies in the past."

Soha marvels at the ensemble experience of Shaadi No1. "I guess there were a lot more people, compared to Antar Mahal, where every character was looked into minutely. I had a lot of fun shooting Shaadi No 1."

The actress reveals how her mom told her to fight off the minimal clothes menace. "She told me that if producers want me to wear a bikini, just because she did once, I'm supposed to say, ‘my mom made some mistakes. I won't repeat them.'

There are some things I just wouldn't be comfortable doing." What films does she have lined up? In my next release, Rang De Basanti, I play a college-going girl. And in Shivum's untitled film, I get to do my first solo-starrer. A lot of people feel I've been doing too many multi-starrers. Well, here goes."