She’s always been a scorcher on screen, but Sameera Reddy is now looking beyond her ‘hot’ quotient. After her totally deglam, tribal

woman-cum-Naxalite avatar in Red Alert – The War Within, she’s now all set to be seen as a Rajasthani village belle in Nagesh Kukunoor’s Yeh Honsla.

But it wasn’t easy, she admits. “I had to work really hard to shed this glamorous look of mine. It’s like you’re bare – you have nothing to work with except your character – and the focus is just on your emotions. Being glamorous is actually much easier!”

She adds, “I’m looking forward to Yeh Honsla. Of all the roles that I’ve ever done, Nagesh Kukunoor’s film is ‘it’. It’s where I’ve done my best. I’m a Rajasthani girl, who takes on all the Panchayats. She’s a very strong girl – her name is Rani, and it’s this woman’s story. And I’m in a ghoonghat! No make-up again!” she quips, grinning.

Sameera, all covered up in a ghoonghat? That takes time to sink in. But when she stepped into showbiz with her first music video, it was a far cry from her sexy siren appearance – she was actually quite chubby. “Yeah. Full-on Southie chubby!” she chirps, laughing, and adds, “I was always chubby, always picked on. I’m telling you, I was so unassuming in college. But I think it only makes you more grounded, honestly. If I was like slim and like this since I was a kid, I would have been so vain. I was the ugly duckling, especially in school. I was an introvert, I was plump, bespectacled... sometimes I’m still in shock about all the adulation.”

How was it, growing up in the shadow of two sisters already famous in showbusiness? “Yeah, it was pretty much like that. Especially when I was in school, Meghna was a really big model then. But we’re all very close, and we’re a very tight knit family, so it really never made a difference ‘coz they always made me feel special.”

Did they inspire her to get into the glamour industry? “No, no. In fact, they always said ‘Don’t get into it; it’s not your cup of tea, ‘coz you’re too shy.’ I was just too sensitive a girl, and my sisters were always worried about me. When my first movie came out, they were so stressed out about how I would react. And they were right, ‘coz I reacted damn badly, I was in tears!”

So how’d she survive Bollywood? “That’s what the film business has taught me – I’m not cynical, but I’m aware – and there’s a big difference. Because some things might be there in the industry, but it doesn’t mean that it’s the be all and end all, which everyone makes Bollywood out to be, and which it’s not,” comes a mature reply.

Which is probably why Sameera loves her life beyond Bollywood. Says the licensed scuba diver, “I have a life of scuba diving, skiing, I have great friends, I have a fantastic family, and I lust for travel. It’s important for me to have a life outside films, ‘coz films can really consume you. All my friends are from outside the industry. Even when I’m really busy, I make sure I make plans with my friends, ‘coz I don’t believe that I should be so busy that I don’t have a life.”

The IPL season 3’s about to begin, and that brings back Sameera’s comments about her not having a rich boyfriend to buy her an IPL team. Was that a direct dig at some actresses who own teams? “Absolutely not,” comes a quick refusal, “Shilpa is someone I’m really close to. I always say, if there’s someone in the industry I’m cool with, it’s Shilpa, Katrina and Neeta Lulla. So I wasn’t taking a dig at her.” How about someone else, who owns a team with her ex? Sameera laughs, “No, no digs at anyone. But the truth is that we add the glamour, and we need someone to back us up with the bucks.”

That’s an honest statement, which not many would admit. “But I admit it,” she says, “Because it’s the truth. Everybody knows it; it’s just that nobody says it.”

Veering back towards films, Sameera still ranks hottie John Abraham in Taxi No 9211 as her best co-star. “I’ll never forget Ek Nazar Mein Bhi Pyaar Hota Hai, we both shared great chemistry in that song,” she remembers.

After playing the sizzler and the Naxalite, both, any kind of role she wants filmmakers to offer her now? “I think I would love to do an action flick,” she says promptly, “I would love to play a Lara Croft or something, that would be really cool.”