An actress who exuded the girl-next-door appeal like no other,Bhumika Chawla was known for her cute onscreen presence. Now a doting mother, she has worked with the big leagues in both South and Bollywood. Varsha Abhay speaks to the lovely lady about her recent release, MS Dhoni-The Untold Story, her life shuffling between Mumbai and Dubai and her tryst with the entire South Indian film industry.

Bhumika didn’t play by the norms; her Punjabi roots did not restrict her to North India. She pursued her acting career starting with Telugu and Tamil films in 2000. Her Bollywood debut was in Tere Naam in 2003 for which she also received an award. She has worked in about 30 films in Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. In her latest, she plays a pivotal role as the sister to the most successful captain India has seen, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

You took a sabbatical from Bollywood after Gandhi, My Father. Why haven’t you worked in Bollywood since then?

During the course of all these years, I was offered a few films, some of which I signed on, but because of certain issues, they didn’t work out.Some films did finally get made, for example Jab We Met and My Brother Nikhil. At the same time there were films that I liked but never got made. Then there were offers that I received which I didn’t connect with, because of the character or the script. In fact, 2 years ago, I was offered films to play the lead but I decided to wait for something that I was genuinely interested in. During that time, I wasn’t working in Bollywood films, I was acting in Tamil and Telugu movies. I got to do some great work in South Indian cinema and hence wanted to be part of something equally good in Bollywood.