02nd November 1997

Sabitha's secret ......

By Chamintha Thilakarathna

The familiar face of Lankan actress Sabitha Perera soaping herself in a bubble bath set in the most dreamy and romantic atmosphere, is only a glimpse of the new Lux advertisement that was shot recently at Brisbane, Australia with three other beauties from the SAARC region.

Sabitha better known as the Lux Lady for having been featured in many of the Lux advertisements, was on a ten day visit to Australia recently to shoot a commercial for a new Lux white moisturising soap. "It all happened so unexpectedly, all I knew was that all of a sudden, I was flying to Australia for a commercial," she said, seeming as if she has not yet gotten over it.

She was joined by Juhi Chawla from India, Bipasha from Bangladesh and Meera from Pakistan. And the fascinating aspect about the entire affair, according to Sabitha was that although they were brought under the same roof to do the same advertisement they had to speak in their mother tongue for the purpose of the advertisement.

Therefore, no one will be able to watch all four of the actresses together in any part of the commercial. Hectic as it was, she feels that it was a worthy experience.

"Shooting started at different times for each of us. While I was asleep maybe Juhi would start her sessions, then Meera. We never acted together. Although we knew when we were expected to be ready, it was like musical chairs, for each of us went one after the other," Sabitha said.

She said that there were also times when they would all be dressed up, not knowing who would be on line next. "But it was all fun and we really enjoyed it," she added.

For Sabitha, it was the first time that she worked with such a wide variety of people. "Our Director, Mr. Dick, was Australian, we had Singaporean cameramen, Indian make-up artists etc. Actually there were many Indians, and the entire Australian JWT team was present. Our outfits were done in our own countries. Mine was done by Chryshanthi Fernandopulle," Sabitha said.

"The techniques they used were quite advanced. They worked so very professionally and unlike in Sri Lanka where certain things are not given much attention, everything was specifically selected and every minor detail was looked into so carefully, she said.

For Sabitha, the difference was quite apparent. "When we work here we do not tend to give so much attention to our clothes as such but there our ward robes were so very well maintained and we were in fact asked to wear certain outfits in specified ways so that they would not get wrinkled or spoilt in any way," Sabitha said.

On Mondays, which was their off day, the foursome spent their time on shopping sprees and a lot of chatting. Most of the chatting was about the film industries in their own countries. "Juhi was very lively. She really kept busy chatting with one or other . Meera was fun too and so was Bipasha in their own ways," added Sabitha.

Rehearsals, training and enjoying themselves, the foursome never clashed." It was a bit difficult to work with four people at the same time. All four of us doing the same thing at different times. But none of us felt too tired of each other, she said.

"Shooting was very tiring, but we always managed to stay cool. Sometimes we had long hours when we worked for more than twelve hours at a stretch," Sabitha said.

Sabitha said that she feels privileged to have had the opportunity to be a part of such a production which is expected to be screened next year. When asked to reveal more details of the commercial she said with a smile that she does not wish to spoil the surprise.

Sangeetha is expected to fly to Australia shortly to join another group of Asian actresses to be featured in another set of Lux commercials.

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