Mallika hopes to strike the right key
Bollywood Desk

BOMBAY—She might not have hit the right key at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, but Bollywood’s oomph girl Mallika Sherawat, pictured, is all set to hit the right keyboard in Nepal. The actress, whose international debut in the film that stars Jackie Chan, The Myth, lacked punch, will have more byte in her new role in Nepal - she has been roped in by two computer companies to launch their new product in Nepal in sizzling style.
Base International Private Nepal, a Nepali computer dealer company based in Baneshwor, Kathmandu, has teamed up with India’s Xenitis Group to market Mero PC, a new computer with a one-year warranty that comes at the price of an assembled PC. Mallika, whose brief appearance in Stanley Tong’s film hit the delete button in theatregoers’ minds, hopes to make a better impact in the Himalayan kingdom where she arrives on October 28 to launch Mero PC.
She is to be the dinner date of the lucky people who win a quiz and coin a slogan for the new PC or simply dole out the cash and buy one. The first 50 buyers of Mero PC will have the pleasure of dining with Mallika at Nepal’s oldest luxury hotel, the Soaltee Crowne Plaza, with the bill being footed by the computer companies.
Also joining them will be the lucky winners of a quiz contest hosted by Base International. The questions, to be found at the company’s web site, require some versatility. You have to have an idea about computer hardware - and you also need to know about Mallika’s film career. In addition to finding the right answers, the contestant will also need to write a winning slogan.
Since the Toronto festival last month, where critics badly panned Mallika’s role in The Myth and her conduct at the fest, the actress has been appearing with unfailing regularity in Nepal’s newspapers. Now that she is finally arriving in the flesh, it remains to be seen how critics here will rate her performance. Mallika will be pitted against three former Miss Nepals who, too, are being offered as dinner dates by cosmetic giant Dabur Nepal to boost the sale of its shampoo, soap and toothpastes.