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Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; July 2, 2016)

Fresh from the success of her last release Housefull 3, Lisa Haydon is all set to judge the second season of the talent-hunt show India’s Next Top Model. The model-turned actress says that this time the challenges are tougher. “The boundaries have been pushed and we have taken it a notch up. What’s interesting this time is the diversity of girls. We have participants from Guwahati, Gurgaon, Bengal, etc. These are girls who are leading a regular, ordinary life and we literally transform them,” she says. Ask her how do they cope with all the pressures and she says that what really works is the girls having a positive attitude. “All the girls are attractive — there’s a teacher, an IT student, an 18-year-old college girl — all potential top models. There was this one girl whom we almost eliminated twice or thrice because she was raw. But now when I see her in the seventh week, I feel thank God we didn’t eliminate her because she is good at taking criticisms.”

Lisa herself has been at the receiving end for her faulty Hindi diction in films, but the actress takes it on her chin. “I agree I have to continuously work on my Hindi because it is not my first language. In Housefull 3 the Hindi was purposely written in a funny way. It was self-depracating.” Ask her if she is taking any classes to learn the language and the right diction and she says it’s a work-in-progress. “I am surrounded by fellow actors who speak wonderful Hindi and are happy to help me like Abhishek (Bachchan) and Riteish (Deshmukh). In my everyday interaction too, I speak the language. When I am shooting for a scene I work on my diction before the shot,” she informs.

What about being trolled for her comments on feminism when in an interview she said things like “I don’t like the word feminist. I don’t think women trying to be men is feminism... It is just an overused term... Women have been given these bodies to produce children, and the spirit and tenderness to take care of people around us. One day I look forward to making dinner for my husband and children. I don’t want to be a career feminist.” When asked to react to it, she avoids it completely. Probably doesn’t want to set off another controversy.