Hello Darling is a film on sexual harassment

It's tricky being an actress. More, if you're Gul Panag. If you glance through her filmography, you'll come across films that are more critically acclaimed than commercially. But in her tenure as an actress, she has shown in few films, if not many, a woman's guile and heart, pride and desperation. And mind you, all those performances in Dor, Manorama and Straight can only come from an actress who is never afraid to take a risk.

It is that combination of talent and courage that Gul has shown over the years which make her do roles she wants to, and not the other way around. Think of it this way and ask: Will Hello Darling describe her any better? Whether she's playing a hard-boiled or soft-boiled character, one never knows with Gul Panag which way the shell is going to crack open. If you're an actress, the quest for a decent part on the screen is still a difficult one.

'Long-suffering' is an attitude you may have to strike in a majority of roles, while staying decorative enough to offer the leading man the promise of something more than conversation. The 'supporting' or 'character' parts she is commonly allotted, despite being the most combustible actress talent of her generation, have made Panag uniquely adept at turning herself from an object into a subject. This special correspondent chats with one of three leading ladies of Hello Darling: Gul Panag, on the many intelligent questions which are always thrown to her every time I interview her because when she talks....she talks sense. Welcome darling!

Hello Darling isn't a deliberate move on my part to do a film. I signed the film two years ago. At the time of signing Hello Darling, I also did a film called Straight which was started and released before this one. I was also a part of Summer 2007. For me, Hello Darling wasn't about a big banner film. I liked the story at the concept level and I was more than willing to work with new and interesting people.