Easy is not for her, for Antara Mali loves challenges. This Friday she is carrying a male mind in her perfect figure. What's more the lissom lass has turned into a writer-director with Mr Ya Miss. "Somehow I just can't walk the straight path the Indian heroine is supposed to follow... put some makeup and dance around. Indian heroines have hardly tried comedy, so I have."

Naach is behind her but she still maintains both experts and masses failed to accept a new age morally strong female character. They kept on comparing her with Urmila and commenting on the lavish dance sequences, refusing to look at a character madly in love but not ready to compromise on her values. "That was a dark period. Somehow the media loves controversies. Had Naach, opened well, they might have looked into this aspect. Anyway had Naach not failed Mr Ya Miss would not have happened."

Entering him

So how did she enter the male dominion? "Well, there were no reference points for such a character but I had to feel like a male. It is like cycling... you take time to learn but once you do you don't falter." In the process of playing Sanjay/Sanjana, Antara says she has become more compassionate towards men. "Not that I have started hating women, but I have understood the physical demands of men, at times they have to behave in a certain way because of the society." On the lighter side, she shares she got to shave, got to visit the male loo. As a director she had a problem on hand. "When I walked the first day with a male gait, Reitesh could not stop laughing. Everyday, I could see somebody giggling in some corner." Youngest among her crew, Antara says it was the respect for her vision that saw her through. A Factory film, Antara asserts whatever people would see on screen is hers and there is no Ramgopal Varma stamp. "If it flops, sari chapplein mere liye. Mr Varma told me in the very beginning that comedy is not his forte, so he can't give any inputs."

Time and again, critics have panned her for overdoing things on screen. Agrees Antara, "I am an intense person so at times I become too emotional about the character. But sometimes it is required. For instance, in a comedy you have to exaggerate. I don't remember the last time I fell off my chair, but in a film people laugh at such scenes." As for comparisons with Hot Chicks, Antara agrees there are similarities, "But unlike the Hollywood flick in Mr Ya Miss there is one protagonist and obviously no exchange of souls happens."