She was brushing shoulders with Hollywood’s biggest names at the Oscar after-party earlier this year. Last month, she was walking the red carpet at Cannes, alongside Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides stars Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz. A few weeks before that trip, she was at the White House, shaking hands with US President Barack Obama, whom she describes as the “most powerful man on this planet”, hours after he had signed Osama Bin Laden’s death warrant.

Life has been a roller-coaster ride down Beverley Hills in her Mercedes 500 SL for Mallika Sherawat or should we say, Reema Lamba, who has come a long way from a patriarchal family in Rohtak, Haryana, where even today, women are confined to their homes. She gets fan-mail from girls in her home state, who look up to her as a role model.

“I gatecrashed the system to make my own little niche here, taking the self-proclaimed blue-blood of Bollywood by surprise. And I did it without a famous first or last name, a boyfriend or a godfather,” she points out loftily. “In some way, I see parallels with President Obama, who as a black man entered the corridors of the White House and changed a centuries-old order.”

If there’s anything that Mallika is missing today, it is a soul mate she can share her unbelievable success story with. Yes, Mallika-e-Azam is looking for a Shahenshah-e-Azam. “There are plenty of suitors, even in Los Angeles, who are always asking me out. But when they learn that I go to bed at 9 pm and that I’m a strict vegan, they are like, ‘Excuse me, do you live on fresh air?’” she laughs.

That’s not all. The actor, who last year created ‘Hisssstory’, also doesn’t smoke or drink. And she’s a yoga freak. “Where do I find a guy who is all this and more?” she sighs. Well, there is Sting, who at a concert in Los Angeles serenaded her with one of her favourite songs, Desert rose…. Post the show, Mallika was introduced to him and spent some time chatting. It’s now being said that if Sting tours India, Mallika could accompany him and even share the stage with him.

“Don’t give me so much importance. I’m just an actor still learning my craft,” she says. “But being on the same stage as Sting would be an honour for any Indian. I’m told he is interested in yoga. I don’t know if he smokes and drinks and is a vegan though. Without all this, any Mr Right would be wrong.”