Three film deal for Sarah Jane

That’s what Sarah Jane Dias earned with Bollywood debut Game opposite Abhishek Bachchan, took diction tips from Shabana Azmi for it.

Former Miss India Sarah Jane Dias is pirouetting her way not only in a cabaret number in the whodunit murder mystery Game, but also in Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidwani’s Excel productions. “I have signed a three-film deal with them. It isn’t time bound and I am free to sign other projects during that period as well,” beams Sarah. While the actor has worked in a Tamil romantic comedy TheeradhaVilaiyattu Pillai along with Tanushree Dutta and Neetu Chandra in the past, she will be shooting for Telugu film The Shadow along with Jiah Khan once Abhinay Deo’s Game releases. The film will mark her debut in Bollywood as an actor. In order to perfect the way her character spoke in the film, Sarah took a lot of help from Farhan’s mother Shabana Azmi. The veteran actor passed on valuable tips on how to pronounce and express certain Hindi dialogues. “She also taught me how to get into a particular mood for a scene and draw inspiration for them,” adds Sarah.

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Another person she says she can’t thank enough is co-actor Abhishek Bachchan, whom she is romantically paired with in the film. “He made me feel comfortable. He was so patient throughout. Abhishek is a fun person and made us laugh all the time,” says Sarah. Game also stars Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Shahana Goswami and Kangna Ranaut and will release on April 1.

As for the cabaret number, Sarah admits that she was a bit scared about audiences accepting it, as it wasn’t "a club up-tempo song like a Sheila… or Munni…. I am not a trained dancer, so it was hard getting the coordination right at first, but I’m happy with the end product now," says Sarah. Explaining the mysticism surrounding her character in Game, which is that of a fragile young woman, Sarah uses the examples of evergreen roles played by Madhuri Dixit in Dil Toh Paagal Hai (1997), Rekha in Khatron Ke Khiladi (1996) and Deepa Sahi in Maya Memsaab (1993). Including hers, all the leading ladies in the mentioned films were called Maya. "There was always a mystery element attached to Maya," says Sarah. "In Game, my character goes through hell at a young age and when she tries to run away from the situation, she lands up in a bigger mess."