Makosi makes movie break in gangster drama

Makosi makes movie break in gangster drama

GUNSLINGER: Makosi pulls the trigger

SHE looks pensive on set

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By Showbiz Reporter

BIG Brother star Makosi Musambasi has taken her first steps towards a planned career in Hollywood after landing a role in a new movie to be screened in UK cinemas in May.

The 26-year-old Zimbabwean bombshell plays Ayesha, a gun-totting sister of a drug dealer in Bollywood movie, Cash and Curry which was shot in the UK in November.

Sarjit Bains, a UK-based film director of Punjabi Indian extraction directed the movie, which also features a cameo role by Faria Alum, the ex-girlfriend of former England football coach, Sven Goran Eriksson.

Makosi’s former Big Brother housemate, Kinga, is also part of the cast.

Cash and Curry is Makosi’s first ever movie role, and first major TV project since her controversial Big Brother appearance and antics two years ago at the cost of her job as a cardiac nurse.

“It was so beautiful to make the movie,” she told New Zimbabwe.com in an exclusive interview last night. “I no longer underestimate people who work in the movies because it is such hard work.”

Makosi revealed it took TWO WEEKS to shoot three scenes for the movie, and she admits the retakes played on her confidence.

She added: “When you have to do the same scene over and over again it sometimes plays on your ego and confidence…you begin to ask yourself ‘is there something wrong with me’?

“I had to take out extra days to sort myself out. Initially, they wanted me to sound Jamaican but that all failed. My role is the type that they usually throw at Halle Berry in Hollywood, and at the end of it all, I think I nailed it more than she would have.”

But Makosi, who says she is decidedly single, admits she is looking forward to the movie premiere with a bit of trepidation after shooting a steamy sex scene.

“My mum will kill me,” she said, “of course it was acting, and nothing happened but I just know it will get my mum in a bit of a state.”

Then she gets all philosophical about it: “Sex is like dinner, everybody has it. Even the nun in Neighbours had sex.”

Makosi now hopes to travel to the United States during the British summer in pursuit of her Hollywood dream.

“This movie has been a stepping stone for me. With the support of Zimbabweans, I think the sky is the limit. One gets a push from the support they get from people, and I hope that happens to my acting career.

“Jennifer Hudson’s story is an inspiration to me. She came from a reality TV show (American Idol) to win an Oscar. She didn’t have to be a size zero to get the Oscar. She is living proof that if you have a dream and want it hard enough, nothing is impossible.”

But she has no illusions about the challenges ahead.

She said: “I have to go out there and scrap. I have to want to start again. I am ready to scrap again, even if it means living on a trailer in Los Angeles. But I am in no rush.”

The movie has a serious tone to it as it touches on gun culture, gang violence and crime. Makosi not only gets to carry a gun, but also gets to shoot Faria Alam, who plays Lakshmi.

“Faria does a good job on the movie, and I got to shoot her in one of the scenes. I am the only one who gets away alive, and speeding away in a [Range Rover] Vogue, how good is that?”

Cash and Curry is a fast-paced, comedy-drama, set in multi-cultural London. Raj and his friends are tired of being "errand boys" at the bottom of the food chain.

Ambition leads Raj and his friends into the middle of a gang war between two of the biggest drug lords in London: Gabbar and Ayesha's brother, Isaac. Realising the consequences of his actions, Raj seeks refuge in the countryside with an old friend, Tony.

Based in an old abandoned farm, Tony runs the largest pirate DVD manufacturing operation in London. To elude capture, Raj and his friends are forced to submerge themselves in farm life.

Meanwhile, Gabbar and Isaac are hunting down Raj and his friends - but who will find them first?

Makosi recently launched a charity called the Big 5 Africa and hopes to run in the London Marathon in April to raise money for children with special needs as part of her charity work (see website or donate).

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