A career in the movie’s extracted an emotional collateral from Mallika. She revealed, “I lost my family when I came to Bombay to be an actress. I lost their support. I lost their love. I have really experienced a loss.” When she decided to pursue a career in Hollywood, there was more collateral to pay. Mallika added, “When I moved to LA, I lost a few precious friendships that I had in India, because when you are so out of touch, you kind of tend to lose them. So yeah, I have experienced a loss like that.”
Despite the heavy toll, Mallika felt that the decision of moving away from India and Bollywood to pursue an international career was worth the effort. She said, “After having worked in Bollywood for 5-7 years, I thought the time was right to explore other horizons and different cultures. Faced with that situation, I told myself, why not. What have I got to lose? I have made enough name for myself in India. I’ve got money. I’ve got fame. Let’s try to go to a new country. And boy, was it a good decision!” She felt that America showed her immense love. She added, “I met with President Barack Obama, twice. I did a music video with Bruno Mars. I did an independent film called ‘Politics of Love’. It was really fruitful.”
It’s not easy to be carefree and not be bogged down by societal pressure. We asked Mallika is she always had a ‘devil may care’ attitude? She replied, “Yes, I did. When you are growing up, you are so naive because you haven’t faced the world. You lead a very protected sheltered life. I thought I could conquer the world. Dekhi jayegi. Coming from Haryana, from the Jat mindset. I rebelled, I packed my suitcase and set out for Bombay. Luckily, it worked out for me. I had the same attitude when I went to the US.”
