That Cielo Woman

"Everybody misunderstands it. I may smile merely because I am feeling smiley’ but you might think, This chick is smiling at me. She must want something!’" Conversely, living in a big city is an education in itself.

You end up becoming street smart and aware. She tries comparing herself with Harsh Lonia, the kid in Just Mohabbat. "If I was so smart at 10, I would have achieved all my goals by now!" she sighs. In fact, her antidote for metropolitan blues is to sit on the sea shore and jot down her impressions.

Most of her talking is done through Kavita’sdistinctive characteristic: the colour of her eyes. A colour impossible to classify. "They reflect what I am wearing and change from blue to brown to hazel," she says. Ironically, her eyes have also been her biggest stumbling block. Work was hard to come by because she did not look typically Indian. But recently, and luckily for her, the trend has been reversed with the likes of Karisma Kapoor and Kajol with stars in their light- coloured eyes.

However, Kavita is quick to point out that the bottomline remains the bite of your acting bug. You many land a couple of roles through sweet talk and speaking eyes, but after that you are on your own. "The competition is so stiff, you have got to be damn good," she insists. Good acting is something that reaches out and affects the viewer. Her modus operandi is to get under the skin of the character and let go of her feelings. "In real life, it is not possible. People would think I am strange," she comments. Neena Gupta her director and co-star in Saans finds her tobe an intuitive actor. "She delivers the goods and is always eager to learn," says Neena. In her spare time, Kavita is a voracious reader, especially of comic books. She grew up on Mad comics, Asterix, Archies, Tintin… "The Thomson twins in Tintin are so realistic — everybody is putting up this big show about being correct and proper," she says.

Kavita likes to live out the present moment. Every day is what you make of it. "And you can choose to make it beautiful," she adds, dreamily. In fact, she recently celebrated her birthday and the best gift she received was a cuddly polar bear. "It looks just like me," she laughs. But she refuses to divulge her age. "Why should I be of an age? Why can’t I just be?" Why not, indeed.

Oh and yes, nearly forgot: Kavita claims she is a "fun-wacky" kind of a person. "I’ll whack you if you don’t mention that," she warns. If only…