Will Bipasha rise like an eagle with Raaz 3?

Bipasha Bas"You're finished. That crown of superstardom which sat on your head once, isn't there... it's gone. Kaput! You're just finished," says Emraan to Bipasha viciously, holding the mirror of truth to an actress who is on the brink of oblivion.

"It's not true..." screams back Bipasha, her entire being convulsing with denial. "It's a lie! You're a liar !" She stands there, alone, helpless, as Emraan walks away. A beat, a silence and then, she crumbles and crumples to the ground, breaking down into a thousand pieces. Her shattered being begins to weep inconsolably, as the truth dawns on her slowly. It's true. It's so true....

Vikram Bhatt, the director, calls 'Cut'. But Bipasha, the real woman, does not stop crying. She is beyond caring, far beyond any semblance of shame, or reality. She just weeps and weeps. The unit falls silent, unsure of what to do next. It is rare this moment, and actors seldom go there. It happens when truth and fantasy collide, suddenly and unexpectedly, and the actor touches the nerve which perhaps they have been trying not to touch for so long....

The last time I had seen this happen was when I was making Arth, and Shabana broke down and wept inconsolably, having hit some stream of buried anguish within her. For me Bipasha Basu, the actor, was born twice: First, exactly ten years ago when I watched with disbelief, the biggest entertainer the world has seen, Paul McCartney no less, make a midnight call to her, after watching the screening of Raaz at Dimple Theatre, which made this dusky beauty the star of the new millennium. He had called her the Indian Sophia Loren and told her that she had mesmerised him with her presence.

And then again, now, ten years later, on this luxurious set of Raaz 3, where she had infused into this horror medium, a rare honesty and truth which even the best actors out there find tough to do. It was heartening to watch Bipasha realise that even in the harshest winter there is a spring waiting to burst out.

It was a bright warm day in my office several months ago, when Vikram Bhatt and me confronted Bipasha with a simple question. "Are you ready to cannibalise your own pain and hidden truths, which only you know?"

She had just listened to the story narrated by the writer Shagufta, and was a bit unsure about whether she should enter a space she was trying to run away from. This Bipasha was, behind the veneer, an unsure woman. In spite of her buoyant 'all is well exterior', I could sense that there was a festering wound brewing beneath that.

A broken affair, a broken heart and a not- so-happening career, and younger heroines appearing on the horizon; were giving her the feeling that the kiss of death, which every actor so fears, was looming large in front of her, waiting to hurl her into the dustbin of history.
There was an explosive pause. It was heartbreaking to see her burn. Then, those brave words resonated in the room... "Yes Bhatt saab. Help me get there, please."

And then began the journey in which Vikram and myself helped her navigate this minefield of emotional ups and downs, where fact and fiction kept overlapping, as she delved into the life of an actress who lusts for eternal fame, and wants it through fair means or foul. Bipasha dug into her being, and pulled out the truths that she had hidden even from herself, and created this character that every fame seeker in the world will empathise with.

And with that process, something within her began to heal. She began to see that only those who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. She gave me the feeling of a woman who had burnt all her bridges. She had to sink or swim. Her shaky feet, on which she had begun this journey, began to get stronger and firmer.

And so... from a lonely, unsure woman, she turned into someone who was okay with single blessedness. It was truly a butterfly moment. She has come through it all. Today when I see her, she has the look of a survivor who has used the very ground that she had fallen on, to help her spring back to fight another round. And another... and another...

They say that there are four seasons in the life of every actor. First when they say, ah look, she has potential. The next when they say, oh, she has arrived! The third, when they say with a snigger, 'Hah, she is finished.' And the fourth when they say, OMG, she's back !

So... will Bipasha rise like an eagle with Raaz 3 or sink like a stone? For this brave girl, I can only hear the footsteps of spring. A long spring.

- Mahesh Bhatt

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