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Asin had the sort of debut crores of Indian girls dream about: A movie opposite one of the three big Khans (Aamir), which turned out to be one of the biggest hits in Bollywood history (Ghajini).
Her next movie was also opposite one of the Khans (Salman) and a super successful director (Vipul Shah), but that film (London Dreams) failed to click. And so, after this quick succession of events – big-bang entry and one flop – she has come to the stage where she has very little Bollywood work at hand.
She remains big in the South, however, and says that her life is sorted. “I love myself,” she says, “seriously. Don’t get me wrong: everyone does, but no one says it.”
So, does she love anyone else as well? “Ha ha… You want to know if I am dating? No, not at all. Totally concentrating on my work. But I love my parents, even more than I love myself. Without them, I am nothing. They have given me everything I want in life. They gave me the freedom to choose my career,” says Asin.
“My parents have been very sportive, and they stood by me. They are not the kind of parents to impose their own ambitions on their children. They actually realised where my interests lay,” says Asin. “When I wanted to move to Mumbai, because a lot of my endorsements and films are Mumbai-based, they moved in with me, just so that I don’t have to struggle here alone. Whatever I am today, is all because of them,” she continued.
She says that they were early supporters of her abilities. “They were the ones who noticed that I was turning towards art and expression. Nobody in my family has any inclination towards the arts; my dad’s a businessman, my mom is a doctor, my uncles and aunties are all either academics or professionals -professors, accountants, scientists and so on. I am the only one who is in the arts, and that too in the glamour industry. Middle-class families want kids to become doctors, engineers or CAs, but in my case, it was not like that. They never pressurized me to become a doctor or an engineer. Not my parents. Indian kids are lucky to have such parents, who give their whole life to their kids,” says Asin.