“Amrita Rao --- The One to Watch”

Spunky, talented, and beautiful --- Amrita Rao has it all … but will she be the next “it” girl of Bollywood?

If you’ve seen “Main Hoon Na” or “Ishq Vishq”, you know Amrita Rao. In each movie, she has clearly demonstrated her ability to act and leave a lasting impression. She has shown versatility, easily personifying a range of characters and hinting at the potential to flex from character acting to being able to deliver commercial success. 

With such strong performances, the question one must ask is, “why is she not more well-known?” Amrita Rao, in her early twenties, has only been in the Bollywood scene for 4 years. She was in the midst of pursuing a psychology degree when she was first discovered and asked to model for companies such as Nestle, Cadbury and Proctor & Gamble. It was her strong presence in these commercials that catapulted her to the film world. She was noticed in a Cadbury Perk commercial by Director, Ken Gosh, and recruited for the film, “Ishq Vishq”…and then noticed in a Nestle Bru commercial by Gauri Khan, wife of famed actor Shah Rukh Khan and co-producer of Red Chilies Entertainment, and brought in for a key role in the popular film, “Main Hoon Na”. These two films set her up for great stardom.

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Amrita Rao. She reminded me a lot of the “Payal” character she played in “Ishq Vishq”. In fact, she herself asserted that in fact my impression was indeed right … “that character is the closest to me. Most of the situations in that film were not very easy and I had to actually put myself into that place and imagine how I would probably react.”

Amrita Rao is a star to watch. You don’t see her in every other movie because she is selective. She seems to be highly strategic about her acting career, emphasizing that she values a balanced life. Family is extremely important to this young actress and she has not let her early success and promise of future potential get in the way of that. She talks about her acting aspirations and positive experiences working with the likes of Sharukh Khan and Shahid Kapoor in one breath and in the very next breath talks about her closeness to her sister and cousins. This grounded, balanced approach to life was very refreshing to hear about from an actress with so much talent and beauty.

Amrita Rao has garnered the attention of key film makers, already having worked with a variety of Directors including Ken Gosh, Rajkumar Santoshi, John Matthew, and Farah Khan. “I am totally a Director’s actress ---- I don’t mean the director teaches me how to act, but it totally depends on his energy and what he bounces to me and what I bounce back”, Amrita astutely points out. 

2006 already seems to be a promising year for actress Amrita Rao. With just two weeks into the New Year, audiences worldwide have seen her on screen in two major Bollywood films, Mahesh Manjrekar’s “Vaah! Life Ho To Aisi” and John Matthew Mathan’s “Shikhar”. She recently got signed to act in the highly anticipated, Sooraj Barjatya's film, “Vivah”, which is expected to be released later this year. 

Amrita Rao has the potential for huge success…yet she is humble and notes she has a lot to learn still in her career. She can even sing but is not focusing on that talent until she has further honed her acting skills. With this attitude, perhaps her vision at a young age will come true ---“it’s quite interesting, when I was 10 or so, I was passing in the car over by RK Studios (Raj Kapoor Studios) and I just looked at the gate and I said one day I am going to walk in there and nobody is going to stop me.” 

It will then be interesting to see how this actress’s career unfolds. She has stiff competition in Bollywood, but shows tremendous potential if she continues to make smart decisions about the films she chooses to do … does more of them …continues to deliver strong acting performances … and importantly, â€œmarkets” herself more aggressively in this next stage. 

I’m going to keep my eye on Amrita Rao --- you should too. She’s the one to watch!

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