In the formulaic world of showbiz, where banality reigns supreme, she has the audacity to draw attention from being different.

While the tinsel town adulates masculinity to unabashed length, this dusky damsel has the gumption to challenge the dominant credo and flaunt her feminine grace, which is both tender and explosive, sensuous and cerebral.

Nandita Das is one of the few thinking actresses, who have the courage to make a difference with their roles, focus attention on core social issues and force audiences to look de novo at hackneyed beliefs.

A common factor in Deepa Mehta's polemical trilogy of ''Fire'', ''Earth'' and ''Water'' - the first two films kicked up a massive shindy because of violent protests from conservative quarters while the shooting of ''Water'' had to be cancelled because of a virulent campaign by rabid Hindu zealots, Nandita has left an indelible impress as an actress of substance.

An accomplished Odissi dancer, she had shown her penchant for acting by associating herself with Jan Natyamanch, which was street theatre pioneered by Safdar Hashmi. She also did proscenium theatre with Barry John and Habib Tanvir, and a bit of television with Muzaffar Ali.

Daughter of famed painter Jatin Das, she cut her teeth into celluloid in 1987 by featuring in ''Parinati'', directed by Prakash Jha. It was a small powerful role depicting a couple's unbridled avarice that ultimately led to their undoing, but this beautiful flick was lost because it was a low budget, small film. Eight years later, in 1995, she acted in ''Ek Thi Gunja'' which was again in the same league of small films that come on television, are seen in festivals and then just fade away.

Deepa Mehta's Fire was her first big budget film, but film critics soon gave her a label- an actress suited mostly to art films. But now she has made them eat the humble pie by making her foray into mainstream cinema as Mrs. Amitabh Bachchan in Rajeev Mehra's ''Aks'' (Mirror).

"I may be his wife, yes, but I am not the typical Hindi film wife who is always either nagging, being sweet or cooking porridge and feeding her husband like a good devout Indian spouse...All that junk is not for me. The wife I play has a mind of her own and has no qualms about disagreeing with her husband," she told a national daily in an interview.

Unable to brook the raging nonsense of mainstream cinema, she had earlier refused ''Mann'' and ''Lagan'' opposite Aamir Khan. (In Lagan, director Ashutosh Gowrikar thought that there was too much intelligence in her eyes!) But ''Aks'', she feels, is the correct film to shift from art house cinema to larger-than-life make-believe. Even though it entails playing the wife of an actor who is much older to her. "There may be a great age difference between us as screen couple, but as long as there is dignity and love between them, and as long as they behave like man and woman, people will believe in this couple," she avers.

Sporting her no-nonsense attitude on her sleeve, Nandita is not a wee bit overawed by the iconic image of Big B. According to her, films are a collective medium where each one has to do his own bit. "What Bachchan can do, I can't and what I'm going to do, obviously he can't. If I remain in awe of him, either I can act or I can pray. I don't want to be bogged down by his iconic status and say Oh my God, I can't move because I am working with Bachchan!", she says, without putting any airs.

Her other assignments include K P Shashi's ''Ek Alag Mausam'', where she is playing a HIV positive patient, Jagmohan Mundra's yet-to-be-named film based on a true gang-rape case in Rajasthan, and Shyam Benegal's “Hari Bhai”, which talks about a woman's reproductive rights.

Her only lament is that she would have liked to be born a few decades ago when "great films were being made. Films were then not only sensitive but also sincere and honest. I would have loved to work with Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy and play the heroine against Balraj Sahni. Wow!" she enthuses.

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