To B'wood, via music videos

Rashmi, the Ja re ja remix video star, takes her celluloid bow in Popcorn Khao Mast Ho Jaao, co-starring Tanisha.

A move to Bollywood is most predictable step for music video’s sexy starlets. All the groovy grind is essentially meant to grab a toe-hold in Mumbai moviedom.
Earlier this year Kaliyon ka chaman babe Meghna Naidu slipped between the sheets in Karan Razdan’s Hawas, her film debut. Meghna has since carved herself a niche in ‘bold’ films: coming up next are Classic and AK47. The 24-year-old, who has also had a go in Telugu films, has no problems shedding clothes: “The role has to justify it and I set my own limits. In the end what matters is I am getting lead roles,” she declares.

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Negar Khan, who grabbed couch potatoes by the eyeballs with the Chadhti jawani video, might have only item songs to her credit so far (Ishq khudai in Rudraksh and Chal hutt in Shaadi Ka Ladoo) but she insists those were “one-off” cases: “From now, I’ll only do lead roles.” In Hello! Kaun Hai, she’s “a spoilt, rich kid”, a nice excuse to flaunt her fab bod.

Petite Ayesha Takia, who serenaded Keith Sequiera in the Shake It Daddy remix gets to play a glam doll in Abbas-Mustan’s Taarzan – The Wonder Car, opening today, and has already started shooting for Dil Maange More with Shahid Kapoor. “I owe everything to Shake It Daddy. Music videos are a great platform for outsiders like us,” she says.

It sure is. Ask Bipasha Basu, Sameera Reddy or Malaika Arora. Says Sameera: “Music videos give you more exposure than print commercials. In Pankaj Udhas’ videos, I was a Plain Jane. Still, in my debut film Maine Dil Tujhko Diya I got a glam role.”

The latest to be bitten by the Bollywood bug is Kaanta laga girl Shefali Jariwala. After repeating the hit remix act in Mujshe Shaadi Karogi she’s ready for more. “I’m reading several scripts,” she says. With the music video PYTs willing to bare all, producers sure aren’t complaining.