DOB:2/2/1979
Claim to Fame:Shamita Shetty, the lovely wide eyed sister of actress Shilpa Shetty wowed audiences in "Mohabbatein" opposite Uday Chopra. Shamita Shetty has been having hordes of film offers .. here's to seeing more of her in the coming year.
She is Shilpa Shetty's younger sister who debuts in Yash Chopra's Mohabbatein. Young, vivacious and confident, Shamita Shetty is also a fabulous dancer.
Mohabbatein is your debut film, so how do you feel about it?
I feel great to be a part of this film. I'm very excited about it. I hope the audience likes it and they accept me.
The film has such a huge canvas of characters - including big stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. Do you think it's the right film to make your debut?
I'm very happy to be a part of this film, because it's a Yash Chopra film. Also the film has a great star-cast including Amitji, Shah Rukh and Aishwarya. Working with them was a huge learning process.
What are the experiences that you picked up from this film?
First of all we were given a lot of training and everything was pre-planned and well organised. We attended a fifteen-day acting workshop of Barry John. We did a lot of rehearsals for our scenes, with Aditya Chopra. He is a great director and he knows exactly what he wants and he will not stop till he gets what he wants.
Any special memories while working in this film?
Working on each and every scene of this film was a memorable experience. There is this dance sequence with a three-way music piece. It was a lot of fun doing that number, especially because I love dancing. The best part is, we finished shooting that sequence in just one day. I'll always remember my introductory scene. In this particular scene, all I had to do was turn and give my hero a certain look. It was terribly cold in London and I was finding it extremely difficult to give the required expression...
How did the role in ‘Mohabbatein’ come to you?
Did you feel your character was lost in ‘Mohabbatein’ which was a multi starcast film?
“Yashji and director Aditya Chopra were looking for newcomers. Since they knew me as Shilpa’s younger sister, they approached me and selected me for this role.”
Were you doing something else before ‘Mohabattein’ happened to you or had you always thought of acting as a career?
“No, I had never thought I would be acting in films. After completing my commerce graduation from Sydhenam College I did my fashion designing diploma course from SNDT college. I love clothes and my plans were to do some designing on my own after completing the course, when out of the blue I got this offer from Yashji and since it was a big banner film, I decided to do it.”
Did you take any acting lessons?
“Yes, I did a course at the Kishore Namit acting classes because I was totally new to this field and didn’t know anything about acting.”
How was it working for a big banner in your very first film?
“I cannot describe it in words but working with the Yash Chopra banner was indeed an exciting experience. I learnt a lot during the making of the film and working with the entire cast and crew was very enjoyable.”
“Not at all. The roles were specially developed as per the characters and considering that all of us were newcomers we all had good scope to perform and do full justice to them.”
So which are your new films that we can look forward to?
“I would like to talk about my new projects once they are finalized. I am still in the process of negotiating and have no concrete plans as of now.”
What type of roles would excite you?
“I would like to play young roles with plenty of scope to show off my acting abilities.”
And any directors you would like to work with?
“I guess it’s too early to say which directors I would prefer like to work with. At the moment, I would only opt for good roles.”
