I’ve moved on:Padma Lakshmi

Padma Lakshmi has let go of her past. The supermodel refuses to let her past with Salman Rushdie colour her present. “I am very busy these days with the projects I’m involved with right now.”
One of these being her involvement with a music and entertainment company to spur the youth of India on to become aware of AIDS. “As a daughter of India, I want people to change the way they think about this. We have to think of it not as another problem, but as our own personal problem and get everyone to lead a healthy and productive life.”

And the one way she hopes to get the attention of youngsters is by asking them to write lyrics “and lend their voice to the cause”. Ask her if she herself writes poetry and she laughs, “I did as a teenager, not anymore though. But I do appreciate good writing.” And music, of course, is one of her great loves. “I listen to it constantly,” she says. Hailing from a South Indian family, she was initiated into music at a young age. “I rebelled against classical music. But music was a big part of my growing up years. Now, I’m totally besotted by it,” she confesses candidly. She also lets on that she went to the same school as the music legend AR Rehman. “He was junior to me and I have met him a few times, the last time being on a plane when we were flying together.”

And where does Bollywood figure in her scheme of things? “I am completely open to doing work in Hindi films,” she smiles. And adds that she’d love to work with Farah Khan and Ram Gopal Varma. “It would be fun to play a bad girl,” she laughs. “But what I’d absolutely love doing is to play a powerful, strong character like say Indira Gandhi and someone like Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, though I know that some films are being made on her.” Talking about Indira, she says, “Whatever people may have to say, she was such an interesting woman.”

What makes her particularly happy these days is the fact that India is such “an important presence in the West.” That’s why perhaps one of her proudest moments was when she appeared on the cover of Newsweek. “I’ve been on the cover of the top fashion magazines, but when a magazine such as this had me on the cover of the issue, it spoke of the serious impact of India on the world, I was thrilled,” adds Padma Lakshmi.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com