Tabu sets her sights on Hollywood

"In commercial cinema, you don’t have the pressure of performing and acting," she said. "Basically, you just dance, and go abroad to shoot… in art cinema, you get the awards and respect."

Among her present film projects, Tabu has just completed Hansal Mehta’s black comedy, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, with co-star Manoj Bajpai, also a National Award winner, who is making his comedy debut. The film will release in December.

"I play an ambitious journalist," she said about the film. "Not ruthless, but she knows what she wants. She has to write about this guy, who comes to Mumbai from a small village; basically, she is using him, but she’s not in love with him. He, however, falls in love with her."

She sees the appeal of last year’s big-budget films like Taal, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Hum Saath Saath Hain (in which she paired with Mohnish Behl) as part of a trend to rope in non-resident Indian audiences. "It’s a marketing strategy," she observed. "The overseas market is very large."After Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, Tabu will star with Saif Ali Khan in a movie that may or may not earn awards for its technical and artistic prowess, but should definitely earn an award for best title, Shaadi.com. "But I’m not yet ready to talk about that one," she said.

— IANS