How did she make her debut in films?``I don't remember thinking twice about it,'' says Rajeshwari. Not surprising for an actress who cut her teeth in theatre early with Mumbai's Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), with which her father Inderjeet Sachdev was associated. ``I've been into acting in theatre since I was this tall,'' says Rajeshwari, indicating knee-high. The theatre association gave her the essential grounding in acting.When director N. Chandra noticed her at a party in 1991 and offered her the lead role in Narasimha, Rajeshwari, then just 15, decided to do it. But she sustained a fracture and Urmila Matondkar was chosen instead. She says, ``I had signed a three-year contract with N. Chandra, a dumb thing to do because it meant I had to refuse tempting offers, including the lead role in Baaghi opposite Salman Khan.''Surprisingly, she made her debut in a Marathi film - Sachin's Aitya Gharat Gharoba. "The script was good and I could speak the language reasonably well.'' So she went ahead and did it, even landing herself a State award for best actress.How did she land plum roles in director Shyam Benegal's films?``He had seen me when I'd accompany my father to the sets of Discovery of India. On script-writer Shama Zaidi's recommendation, he called me to his office and asked me if I wanted to consider a role in Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda. No girl, not even a non-actor, would refuse such an offer, so I immediately asked him when I could come for the costume fits,'' she remembers.Her performance in the film was well-appreciated. She found acting under Benegal's direction agreeable because it was easy to understand what he wanted. Obviously, the feeling was mutual for before long Rajeshwari was working in Benegal's Sardari Begum in 1997. She won the National Award for best actress in a supporting role for the film.She has just completed acting for Benegal's forthcoming release Samar. It is a film, she believes, which handles the serious theme of Dalit discrimination in a refreshingly light-hearted fashion. Rajeshwari has also acted in Paresh Kamdar's Tunnu Ki Tina, Major Ashok Kaul's Param Vir Chakra, an Indian entry to the Oscars, and Basu Bhattacharya's Triyacharitra besides the TV serial, Marguerita.''From Benegal to Bertolucci?``It was Benegal himself who recommended my name to the casting director in Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha.'' Fifteen days after an interview with the director, Rajeshwari came to know that she had been selected to star as Yashodhara opposite Keanu Reaves. ``It was a good experience. Something that great directors like Benegal and Bertolucci seem to share is their ability to spot what you are doing even when in a huge crowd and telling you to repeat it later.''Working with Speed hero Reeves was fun, she says. ``By the time we became friends, it was time to leave.'' But she did catch up with him when he was in Mumbai recently. ``It was nice talking to him - we discovered that we were both actors who were into music,'' she says.Talking about music, what prompted her to cut the album, Hullehullare?``I have always been singing but not professionally. When Magnasound found me willing, I signed up for an album,'' she says. As easy as that? ``When good things happen, they happen all at once,'' she smiles. The album, which contains folk numbers like the Punjabi gidda, was recorded in September last year and its music video is already on air.What are her plans now?Rajeshwari is hopeful of her music album doing well but plans to continue acting. ``Acting, for me, is life. It is a different experience each time and a job I love to do''.
