The actress refuses to play the submissive Indian woman. Her roles seem more crucial than ever at a time when her statements on sexuality have been subverted by her strip-to-succeed successors.

Bipasha discusses her new film, Madhoshi, with Subhash K Jha.

In your last release Rakht, you left your sexy image behind to play a mother.

When I heard the script, I felt it gave me the chance to break away from my Jism image. If you notice, I'm the catalyst in the script though it featured big male stars [Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Dino Morea].

I hold the plot together, and that's still rare for a heroine in Hindi cinema. Sadly, Rakht opened poorly. But I have been praised unanimously. This is a new triumph, and very encouraging. I had worked hard on my character's look.

I'm not the hot babe in the film -- the others [Neha Dhupia, Amrita Arora, Yana Gupta] are there for that.