Om Puri, who worked with Mallika Sherawat in the leazy political drama ‘Dirty Politics’, which completed ten years on March 6, vouched for Mallika’s behaviour. In fact, he decided to re-christen her Mallika ‘Sharafat’.

In an earlier interview with me, Om said appreciatively, “I had heard stories about her and was quite apprehensive. But when we met she was a completely different girl from what I expected her to be. So down-to-earth and innocent. She’s from Rohtak, and still that simple innocent(??!!!) small-town girl at heart. When I told her I was from Patiala we hit it off instantly.”

Om was shocked by tales of her tantrums and revealed, “She didn’t throw one tantrum during the song. I’ve named her Mallika Sharafat.”

Further expressing his desire to work with him, Om shared, “I’d love to work with her again. She is so free of airs.”

Produced and directed by K C Bokadia, Dirty Politics reduced Om Puri to the indignity of playing a lecherous over-libidinous politician, who has the hots for an ambitious sire. Om did what he can, given the constraints of a corny script that relies on sleaze and shock value to get our attention. Other talented actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher and Ashutosh Rana seemed to be in it for fun. Or was it the pay cheque? Nothing that we saw in Dirty Politics justified the presence of these talented actors.