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Mamma Mia!

Sultry Canadian model Mia Uyeda talks to City Times about her first bad girl Bollywood role and settling in Mumbai

“YEAH, I’M THE vamp,” model and budding actress Mia Uyeda plainly stated when asked to describe her character Rosa.

Canadian native Mia was talking to City Times over the phone from Mumbai about her first Bollywood role in Vishal Mahadkar’s Blood Money prior to the cast’s promotional visit to Dubai. In cinemas now, Blood Money charts the story of newlyweds Kunal (Kunal Khemu) and Arzoo (Amrita Puri) as the protagonist lands his dream job in Cape Town, South Africa. All is not how it appears, however, when Kunal makes the discovery his employers are embroiled in the internationally prohibited blood diamond trade, implicating him and leading to an inner conflict between following his dreams or standing up for what is right.

Rosa, Mia explained, is another temptation that comes as part of his new, more Western-orientated life, which Kunal must overcome.

“I play a girl working in the office with Kunal,” she said. “She’s a hot, sexy girl who knows what she wants and knows how to get it. She causes a lot of trouble in the storybook marriage that Kunal and Amrita’s characters have.”

Bollywood Calling

It was six years ago when Mia accepted a one-off modelling job that first took her to India. Having been discovered in a local Vancouver convenience store aged14, she had a steady catwalk career travelling her homeland, Europe, America and East Asia until the call came to appear in Mumbai at 21-years-old whilst finishing a job in Malaysia.

“I came to the country, saw it was a good market, and decided to move here. There were no foreign models (in India) at the time,” Mia told us.

Now 27, the move turned out to be a wise one. Soon after appearing on the runway for a high-profile fashion show, Mia was asked to try out for the annual Kingfisher calendar in which she eventually featured. From there it was a natural progression to television, becoming a VJ on Saturday Night Shuffle for MTV India and continuing to front many advertising campaigns for national brands.

Mia’s first flirtation with Bollywood was in an item number in 2009’s Sankat City alongside Kay Kay Menon and Anupam Kher. Whilst not a speaking part, the experience was enough to inspire the model to pursue a career in movies reasoning that her journey had been one lucky break after the other so far, so why not give it a try?

Mia revealed: “None of the things I have done from the beginning have been planned. That first modelling job opened up the calendar and that led to everything else. The director of this movie Blood Money got in contact because he remembered me from my MTV days. He sent me a Facebook message asking if I would like to do the film!

“I usually never answer my Facebook messages because there are so many weirdos out there, but this was the one time where I called because I had a good feeling about it.”

Girl on Film

The old adage goes that good looks can get you on camera, but can only take you so far in the industry - especially one that embraces very few non-local actors who, even with a foot in the door, could find it difficult to sustain a career.

During the conversation it was apparent this notion was not lost on Mia.

“I realise I am not from India and I have found the language hard at times. But I have been here for so long that I really feel I have adapted and my linguistic skills, after learning Hindi for four years, have become very strong,” she said.

Despite having an Asian-orientated surname, interestingly Mia is unsure of her ethnic roots as a result of her father’s adoption as a baby.

“Uyeda is a Japanese name, but my father doesn’t know where he is from. He was adopted by a Japanese family. We do know he is not ‘pure’ Canadian if that exists. My mum, however, is totally French-Canadian – blonde hair, blue eyes, the lot.

“With my look I could pass as being from here, which I hope will help me in the industry. I have always been a hard worker and I took acting classes in Canada. When you’re on set, though, that’s when you discover what true performing is. I would get on the set in Blood Money and think ‘wow they didn’t teach me this.’ You really have to be on a set to learn what it’s really like. I love it.” With regards to future prospects Mia intoned that she is happy to do most roles and could be tempted to return to the part of chief seductress if those are the characters that continue to arise.

“It’s okay if they want me to play the sexy, hot vamp. I would of course like to play other parts, but if they are the offers then so be it. I want to work. I want to act. I’m not going to do just any role, but if the script is good and the part is interesting then I’ll do it.

“I like comedies, intense thrillers and romance stories. I can’t watch horror films, but I don’t think it would be scary to act in one.”

Canadian Invasion

Part and parcel of being a sought-after model or actress these days is dealing with the constant requests from men’s magazines for ever increasingly risqué projects. Some are more than happy to pose for a photo feature and others are known to get further involved and become contributors. Mia is the latter and writes an adult advice column for the Indian GQ, an experience which has opened her eyes to the male condition.

“Some of the questions they don’t even show me because they are a little bit too ‘out there.’ There are a few strange ones that come through and you think, ‘how could anyone write that?’ It’s good fun though and we do a nice shoot for it for every piece.”

The second Canadian to make it big in Bollywood this year, being a bona fide lads’ mag journalist we thought it pertinent to end on Mia’s thoughts as to her fellow countrywoman and adult star Sunny Leone’s entrance onto the scene.

“I’d heard she’d appeared on Bigg Boss,” Mia said with a touch of hesitation. “Good for her that she’s come here and working.”