‘Housefull’ is mad, not mindless: Lara Dutta

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MUMBAI - She has done drama and action, but Lara Dutta is partial to comedies. And now she is ready with another laugh riot “Housefull” which she says is mad but not mindless.

“It’s not a mindless comedy. It has a tight screenplay. So if you are not following because of all the confusion, you might lose the plot somewhere. It’s a big entertainer with great music with great comic talent. We hope we entertain,” Lara told IANS in an interview.

Directed by Sajid Khan, “Housefull” revolves around Aarush (Akshay Kumar), who believes his bad luck will disappear if he finds true love. In his quest for love, one lie leads to another and different people from various walks of life come together adding more confusion and resulting in total chaos.

“It goes by the literary meaning of it. There is one house crowded with people. One person has three wives and children. These wives also have some complications. Time comes when all family members are together and confusion takes off, and that’s what the film is all about,” said Lara.

After doing “Bhagam Bhaag”, “Partner” and “Do Knot Disturb”, why did she choose another comedy?

“I like doing comedy; so most of the films I do are comedy films. Comedy is something that works. Last year I did ‘Billu’, which was in a different space, ‘Blue’ was an action film and ‘Do Not Disturb’ was a comedy. You know you have to pick and find your balance somewhere,” said Lara.

But now the actress plans to try other genres. She said: “I would like to take a break from comedy and do something else. I have already shortlisted what I want to do, but I haven’t signed any.”

Lara said that she was tired of playing a Punjabi girl and that the role of a modern Gujarati woman in “Housefull” was a welcome change.

“We were tossing things around when we were in the initial stages of the script. We didn’t know whether she is going to be Parsi, Punjabi or Gujarati. I got bored of playing Punjabi characters and so I insisted that my character be not made a Punjabi,” said Lara.

In “Housefull”, Lara’s character works in a casino, meets someone, falls in love and gets married.

“The only aim of her life is that her father, who stays in Ahmedabad, accepts the man she has married. The funny part was they speak to each other through answering machines and in proper Gujarati. It was fun.”

Apart from Lara Dutta, “Housefull” features Boman Irani, Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Riteish Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal and Jiah Khan.

The former beauty queen is mostly seen in multi-starrers but is happy that every character she portrayed has been indispensable for the film.

“You know I like doing comedy and most comedy films have many characters and therefore they are multi-starrer films. But at the same time every role that I have taken in the comedy films, they are very distinct roles. I genuinely feel that if you take away the character from that film then there would be something missing. The characters really added a lot to the films,” said Lara.