‘Don’t know how Freida fell for Dev’

Tina Desai who co-stars with Dev Patel in The Sec ond Best Exotic Marigold Hotel admits that he tried to woo both Lillete Dubey and her.

Tina Desai who shared Table No. 21 with Rajeev Khandelwal, has graduated to international projects. Her latest film, a sequel to the 2011 hit, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, opens in theatres in March. The film premiered in London with the actress arriving on the red-carpet in an auto-rickshaw.

At the gala Tina was not only brushing shoulders with the likes of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Richard Gere but also the British royalty. “Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, were there. It was a proud moment for me as an Indian,” says the actress who trained for four months in Bollywood dance to jive to the Jhoom Barabar Jhoom number in the film. “I never imagined that the first time I danced it would be in a Hollywood film.”

This was a second outing for most of the cast and crew who turned emotional at the premiere. The familiarity could have translated into a relationship with Dev Patel, who is enjoying his newly acquired singleton status and Tina admits he tried to flirt with her but his charm didn’t quite work.

“Dev is a cartoon… A total clown. I don’t know how Frieda Pinto fell for him,” she laughs, recalling how his former live-in partner would drop by and Dev would instantly transform into a suave gentleman. “We were all very sad when he broke-up with Freida, they looked so cute and adorable together.”

However, after the break-up, it seems The Newsroom actor has moved on. “He was besotted with Lilette Dubey and was all flirty and charming around her,” she reveals.

For the all-work-and no-play Tina, next up is The Matrix makers Andy and Lana Wachowski’s series Sense8. “I sent them my audition clip and was selected. It’s a series about seven people from across the world who are emotionally linked. It’s a pathbreaking concept set in a parallel world. I can’t wait for it to stream on Netflix!” she says about the show that premieres in July.