American Beauty

After Love Aaj Kal,which starred the Brazilian model Gisele Monteiro,and Kites that has the Mexican actor Barabara Mori,it’s the turn of Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti to boast a foreign name in its star cast. Sarah Thompson,a familiar name on American television,stars opposite Ranbir Kapoor in the film. “ Mein theek hoon,aap kaise hain ,” says Thompson,31,over phone from Los Angeles .

Thompson,a part of the box office debacle Cruel Intentions 2 (2000),says she started taking Hindi lessons in LA last December and she is “somewhat capable of reading and writing in the language.” “It was not like that during the shoot of Rajneeti. I would cringe when I had to speak lines in Hindi,” she recalls. Her last film outing was in the Richard Gere-starrer Brooklyn’s Finest,in which she has a small role as the damsel in distress who is rescued by Gere’s character . In Rajneeti,Thompson plays Kapoor’s foreign girlfriend and has about 15 scenes with him. Her character,also named Sarah,studies with Kapoor at Harvard University. When he is forced to return to India due to the family’s political commitments,Thomson’s character accompanies him.

Thompson was signed up for the film in 200 8 after a three-hour breakfast meeting with Prakash Jha in LA. “I familiarised myself with some of his work and felt it was close to Martin Scorsese’s edgy style,” she says,adding that she was always keen to act in Bollywood.

The film industry grapevine is already buzzing about the kissing scenes between Thompson and Kapoor. The actor herself remembers the ‘interspersed’ lip-locks quite vividly. “They weren’t so bad. We did those scenes a couple of times,” chuckles Thompson,adding how surprised she was at the personal attention she received on the sets,with an attendant attached to her.