By Joginder Tuteja

Mumbai, March 8 (IANS) She won the Miss India-Earth pageant in 2006 but Amruta Patki's debut film "Hide & Seek" is set to release only now. The reason, she says, is she waited for a project that would not tie her down to a three-film contract.

"I am a free bird and even after Miss India, I never allowed people to put any restrictions on me. The same holds good in my Hindi film career as well," Amruta told IANS.

It was way back in 2006 that she got the Miss India-Earth title; so there have been film offers aplenty since then.

"Yes, there were roles before 'Hide & Seek', but then I was looking for an ideal mixture of a good production house, a good director and a good story.

"Of course, another major criterion was this entire non-contract thing. I am not too fond of these three-film contracts or the entire exclusivity factor where you can't do any other film till the first one releases," she said.

There were also other reasons that made her go a little slow.

"Sometimes it also happened that the star cast opposite me was so much stronger that there was a possibility of me not getting that much attention or exclusivity. Of course, a role not being really great is one of the major criteria, but then there were also some movie offers where everything was good about my role, but the production house was not established. So I rather decided to wait and thankfully 'Hide & Seek' came my way which has just the right combination."

In "Hide & Seek", which releases Friday, Amruta plays socialite Gunita Suri. Co-produced by Apoorva Lakhia and Laxmi Singh, the film is about six youngsters who as kids played a game on a chilly Christmas night.

When they grow up, their past returns to haunt them and it becomes a matter of survival. There is a mysterious entity which tries to bring them all together in order to play the same game all over again.

Directed by debutant Shawn Arranha, "Hide & Seek" also stars Purab Kohli, Arjan Bajwa, Mrinalini Sharma, Samir Kochhar and Ayaz Khan.