BY NDTV.com,

After the success of Partner, Lara Dutta is on a fast track now. There's a new determination in her to overcome her inhibitions, whatever they might be worth. And the first one is overcoming the fear of diving underwater.

While she prepares to do her first ever avant-garde film Devdas with Sudhir Mishra, in which she intends to change her entire image and get-up to play a modern-day Paro, in a new sporty film entitled Blue, Lara has gone several steps further.

She has actually managed to overcome her fear of the underwater to do some serious scuba diving with the ever-sporty Akshay Kumar.

For years now, Lara has been petrified of taking the plunge. Akshay urged her to not only accept a film that needed her to go against her ingrained fears, but also helped her out of the dive-despair.

Laughing throatily, Lara admits she has gotten over a lifelong fear.

"But I can't speak about what it is. Yes, Akshay's natural sporty spirit is contagious. And it helped me take the plunge," Lara said.

She reminisces fondly about Akshay.

"He was my first co-star in Andaaz and was very helpful. Then we did Bhagam Bhaag when he was fully into comedy. I didn't know I had a comic streak in me until then. Now that he's returning to action, I'm also moving on from comedy to big time action," she added.

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