Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 12, 2016)

Ram Gopal Varma is currently filming the Hindi version of his 2016 Kannada thriller Killing Veerappan (L) with Lisa Ray as Priya, who helps the cops capture the notorious bandit. "I read about Veerappan in the '90s. Not a day would pass without the papers carrying something on him. So when Ramu approached me with his story in February, I was fascinated and immediately came on board," says Lisa, who is currently shooting her parts in Mumbai before returning to Hong Kong and her husband, Jason Dehni, later this month.

The film is set in South India and will see a totally de-glam Lisa since Priya is a middle-class girl, but a real daredevil who rides around in a scooter. She hurt her foot driving one but points out that she fell off it only after RGV called 'Cut'.

Her director's recent box-office debacles aren't giving her sleepless nights? "After I had signed the film people did point this out to me, but you can't judge a filmmaker only by his past few releases. Ramu is a genius and has given us classics like Rangeela, Satya and Company. I'm extremely fortunate to be working with him," she insists.

Lisa hasn't been signing many films and when quizzed on this, reasons that she has always been choosy about her films. "I am at that stage in my life where I don't really have to work. So besides acting I also want to focus on other interests like designing, writing and travelling," she points out.