As liveried waiters from Essex Farms scurried across the Paharganj hotel terrace where the Titanic star was stationed, the English actress demonstrated some method acting -- how to appear bored and superior at one go.

Perhaps it was the company of her boyfriend Jim Threapleton that she found more exciting. Whatever the reason, even as pesky journalists kept a vigil downstairs with a bagful of questions and young girls stationed themselves outside the hotel for autographs, Winslet maintained an inscrutable silence behind a posse of uniformed security guards and walkie-talkie-wielding local assistants.

As an international crew hurried about, adjusting cameras and lights, dodging cows and their dung, director Jane Campion even refused to acknowledge her own existence. The direct approach did not work either. ``Hi,are you Jane Campion,'' asked this reporter. ``No, I am not,'' said the straw hat-clad director of the Oscar-winning The Piano.

Of course, Campion's reticence did not stop everyone -- from paanwallas to extras -- talking about their movie Holy Smoke (the paanwallas insisted on calling it Holy Smack). Like Dilip Verma, a theatre enthusiast and Paharganj supporter. He needed only a little encouragement to rattle off the story, in which Winslet plays a young Australian woman who gets involved in a bizarre cult. And ultimately with its leader, played by Harvey Keitel. The film also stars Jackie Brown's Pam Grier as Keitel's wife.

Accompanied by Australian actress Samantha Murray, Winslet meets a band of devotees outside a seedy hotel -- the shot was in progress on Tuesday. From the Capital's rundown lanes, her search for the cult leader moves to Pushkar on Friday. Though the crew shot on Monday too, few saw in Winslet the resplendent Rose De Witt Bukater of James Cameron'smega-blockbuster. ``But now that we know who she is, we all want to see Kate,'' said Ujjwala Sachdeva, who lives in the area and has seen Titanic thrice.

The shoot had drawn other Indians, like television producer Akhtar Khan, who is part of the unit and has Gandhi and Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy to his credit. Or Varun Narayan, who's doing the Indian casting. Both are Jamia Millia Islamia film graduates. Or even Shakti Prabha Sidhu, who has done programmes for Doordarshan and is helping with make-up.

Campion's film has already shot a 15-week stretch in Australia and will wrap up its shoot in India in a week. Produced by Jane Chapman, Holy Smoke's line producer is Los Angeles-based Indian, Deepak Nayyar, who has worked on movies such as Wim Wenders' End of Violence.