Anju Mahendroo (in picture), the colourful actress who once boasted of an off-field partnership with cricket legend Gary Sobers, is to play the role of the gossip columnist Devyani Chaubal in The Dirty Picture, based on southern sleaze queen Silk Smitha‘s life.
Devyani Chaubal wrote the saucy Frankly Speaking column in the now-defunct film magazine Star & Style, mixing insider knowledge with insinuations in bitchy Hinglish prose, a style emulated by several of her contemporaries, including Shobha De.
According to Mumbai Mirror, it was Anju herself who suggested to the movie’s director that her character should be based on Devyani.
“I told Milan Luthria that I knew Devyani at a personal level and it would be easier for me to base my character on her.
“In one scene, Vidya Balan [who plays Silk Smitha] comes up to me and asks ‘Who are you?’
“When I introduce myself, she shoots back, ‘Oh so you are the one who writes all the nasty things about me’.
“And then I answer back, ‘Well, it’s better to be written about than not’.”
Read the full article: Anju turns controversial journo
View a sample of Devyani’s writing: here
IJR 
