I'm told my look, body frame and voice is suited to a lot of period films: Ileana

Actresses have had to work hard to find a niche for themselves in a male-dominated Bollywood film industry. But then, Ileana D’Cruz seems to have found one quite quickly in the few years of her Bollywood career.

It’s common knowledge that she has done many South films before her foray to Bollywood. She had also been the highest paid South actress before she made her Bollywood debut in Anurag Basu’s Barfi, which was primarily set in the ’70s.

Having worked on other period movies like Akshay Kumar’s Rustom, which was based in the ’50s and Ajay Devgn’s Baadshaho, based in the ’70s again. Ileana says she’s best suited for period films. “My directors would be in a better position to answer to this, but I’m told that my look, my body frame and perhaps even my voice is suited to a lot of period films. I wanted to do the role of Jhilmil in Barfi, but Anurag wanted me to do the other role, since he felt my face was classical and fit the other character better,” she explains.

And this is perhaps the very reason why Rajkumar Gupta too wants her to do the heroine’s role in Raid, opposite Ajay again. The film is about an income tax raid set in the ’80s in Uttar Pradesh.

With many such movies from the past being made in Bollywood today, the actress surely has time on her side. Period.