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How Minissha got her groove back

Actress credits co-star Imran Khan with helping her lose weight for her role in Kidnap

Actress Minissha Lamba worked really hard to shape up to carry off a bikini with panache in Sanjay Gadhvi's Kidnap, but she credits co-star Imran Khan for helping her maintain her weight.

"Imran helped me in my weight loss regime," Minissha said.

"During the shootings, I was on a high-protein diet. While I was surviving mostly on protein bars, Imran used to get his dabba (lunch box) from home with delicious keema (minced meat).

"The aroma of the keema always tempted me, so Imran stopped eating in front of me. He used to sit in a corner, far away from me. Since I couldn't smell it, I didn't get tempted," she quipped.

After having worked extremely hard for her sexy image in Kidnap, Minissha now plans to stick to her healthy diet forever.

"It was eight long months of denying myself cakes and pastries. But I plan to continue to stick to the same diet. And now that I'm in shape, I don't feel like eating stuff that's wrong for me. My body has gotten used to being in a particular way and resistant to putting on weight. It also rejects something that is not right for it," Minissha said.

Though the sprightly actress is a big time chocolate consumer, she has reduced her intake of brownies from three-four a week to just one in 10 days.

In Kidnap, which released last week, Minissha plays Sanjay Dutt's 17-year-old estranged daughter who is kidnapped. Before Kidnap, she played a dreamy-eyed teenager opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Yash Raj Films' Bachna Ae Haseeno.

Minissha made her debut in 2005 with critically acclaimed Yahaan. She was praised for portraying the dilemma of a Kashmiri girl torn between her army officer lover and her militant brother.

After that, she was seen in a variety of roles in films like Corporate, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., Shaurya and Dus Kahaniyaan.

But her role in Kidnap is a first of its kind for her as it gave her an image makeover.

"I wasn't looking for any sort of different image in a film. I only thought about an image change when Sanjay (Gadhvi) offered me Kidnap. He said, 'I want you to wear a bikini in the film; the character is very hep, very trendy and very Alicia Silverstone from 'Clueless'.

"I think after three years of being in this industry, establishing myself as a girl next door, having a certain fan base and an audience, I felt it was the right time to try something different and the vehicle for that change came along in Kidnap," Minissha explained.

Minissha had no qualms getting into skimpy clothes. Instead, she was confident of the director, who has earlier shot Esha Deol and Bipasha Basu in a bikini in Dhoom and Dhoom 2 respectively.

She said: "I knew that if I'm going to be in a Sanjay Gadhvi film, it's going to be stylish and slick. Sanjay has a signature style and, therefore, I was happy to adhere to it. I knew it has worked well in the past. So for me, it was as good as letting myself surrender to a person who I could trust."