“I beat men in car and bike races. I am the country’s first female racing champ. But I get just a mandatory press mention. I sign a movie and I get two columns on the front page of every newspaper.” Alisha Abdullah minces no words. She works hard at her sport but films work like nothing else around here. “The funny thing is I get berated too! The moment I signed a movie, people started saying I shouldn’t shift focus, that I am an icon for young girls. Well, I am going to jolly well do what I want to. The US female racing champ, Danica Patrick, who is the reigning world champion, is a mom of two, a model and a racer. Multiple roles are possible, but India is still backward,” she says.
Alisha is shifting gears with a debut in the Tamil film Irumbu Kuthirai, directed by Yuvaraj Bose. “I have been getting film and television offers for a long time. Two years ago, I was offered a Hindi series on agent coding, but I couldn’t take it up. Irumbu Kuthirai is a small role, but very relevant as I play a bike racer. The idea was to promote the sport among women at a higher level. My second film will feature me in the lead, but I’d like to wait for the official announcement.”
Industry insiders are speculating that the movie is the Tamil remake of the Swedish-American The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo . Alisha confesses that Bollywood is also luring her with offers and she is definitely open to it “Whether it is playing a bike or car racer, I am open to acting.”
Right now, Alisha is gearing up for her big race from July 14 to 6 in Phuket. “It is a street-racing all-women competition. I have always competed with men in racing. I would like to test my mettle against women. We are grittier than men, I have to say.” After that she will launch her hunt for India’s next female racing champion. “For the women empowerment programme, for which we are looking for a title sponsor, we will select three girls from each of the big metros . Then the short-listed 24-30 girls will be trained for the race. It’s a big initiative for me,” says the speed queen, who is also team operations manager for the Chennai-based racing and karting team, Dark Don Racing.
