By  Subhash  K Jha

Shocking as  it  may  sound,Amrita  Rao   who has been in two  of  the  most successful films of the decade –Farah Khan’s  Main Hoon Na  and   Sooraj Barjatya’s Vivah  and whose success rate   and iconic status  is  certainly  higher than most of  her contemporaries, was  not asked  to part of Karan Johar-Tarun Mansukhani’s  Vote Aapke Haath Mein Hai campaign.

When asked about  this surprising  omission Amrita  laughs  away  the query. “You’ll have to ask  them why  I wasn’t part of  it.”

Amrita, it would seem, has antagonized the Johar-Chopra’s by refusing to  do Bachna Ae Haseenon.  She  a was  offered  the role that Minissha Lamba finally did.
 
Says Amrita, “I won’t say  I’m tired of  playing the sweet girl nextdoor who looks at life each day with  wide-eyed wonder. But I do crave for a change of  image. In my next release Short Cut  I play  a very glamorous  girl. For  the  first time  I’m being dressed  up by Manish Malhotra. That  does say something  about the characters I’ve played so far. So yes I declined Bachna Ae Haeseenon . I couldn’t relate  to the character.”

 No   one   says no  to  a Yash  Chopra presentation. Amrita’s behaviour was secretly  described  as “high-handed” and “reckless”.

And now   she  was  refused a place  among  Bollywood’s  30-minus icons  in Karan Johar’s  voting-awareness  film although  everyone from Kareena Kapoor to Ritesh Deshmukh  featured  in it.
 
Not that  Amrita  was brooding  over being left  out. On  Thursday Amrita Rao  voted  for  the  first time. So excited  was  she  by the prospect  of  casting  her vote that she reached the polling booth even before the gates had opened.
“At 7  am I was  the  first voter at the booth in  the municipal school in Mahim.I feel so proud  of  being able to vote for the first time. I keep looking at  the black mark on  my finger  proudly.  For years I envied that tell-tale mark  on  my parents’ finger.”

Amrita’s chosen  candidate had to fulfil three  prerequisites. “He had to be well-educated, young though not inexperienced, and without a criminal  background.”

Interestingly  she says she  attained  a voting consciousness   from  a electorally-galvanizing  website  jaagore.com. - SAMPURN