MUMBAI:

Remember those Mata Hari-Catwoman comic book heroines? Bollywood’s Priyanka Chopra harks back to the comic book heroine of yore in Goldie Behl’s Drona, a la Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.

It’s a FX spectacle done up in the comic strip mould with Abhishek Bachchan playing a bespectacled nerd in the US.

“And guess what? I play Abhishek’s bodyguard. It’s a real interesting role, and a first of its kind since we’ve never had the leading lady ‘protecting’ the hero... unless we

remember Hema-ji in those hunterwalli movies like Jyoti in which she looked after the hero,” Priyanka said.

No wonder she is often looked on as the new millennium Hema. “Really?” Priyanka laughed. “I’m flattered. My entire look in Drona is very virile and aggressive.” Priyanka learnt a special strain of the martial arts for her role in the action drama.

“I had learnt some kung fu for Don. But this is different. It’s a full-on action movie for me, with kicks and somersaults galore. I quite enjoyed the cuts and bruises.” She agrees her Drona look and body language are unlike anything she has done before. Quite like what stylist Anaita Shroff did with Aishwarya Rai in Dhoom 2. “Yeah, we’ve the same stylist. But my character is more action-oriented. In fact, for a change it’s the leading lady doing more of the bossing than the hero.”