Anjana of VV is different from Irene of Aadukalam

Your character in Vandhaan Vendraan My role as Anjana in Vandhaan Vendraan is a major transition and is a totally different type of director and story. And people who watch the movie will not realize that it’s the same girl who played Irene in Aadukalam. Vandhaan Vendraan’s Anjana is as mature as Irene but she is an educated city girl, an architect, a millionaire’s daughter who wants to make a mark of her own. So she is in Chennai while her dad is in Mumbai. She has no airs of being a millionaire’s daughter. First of all, the movie will have her as a very simple girl; not the regular bubbly, chirpy college girl. Second half shows her as a more adamant and serious girl whom you cannot take for granted.

We see you are a gun toting girl in the movie. Comment There is a scene with a gun in my hand but I will have to leave it to you to wait until the movie is released to see what that is about. But yes, I do have a gun in my hand in the movie.

I do have a gun

I am lucky to have a director like Kannan

Do you have more importance than the hero in VV? Well, that I will leave up to you to decide after watching the movie. I am really thankful to the director. I couldn’t believe that a director would trust a newcomer so much. When I was committed to Vandhaan Vendraan, Aadukalam was not out. Not even images from the movie were out. So much of trust and confidence in a newcomer; I am really lucky to have a director like Kannan. He is my source of encouragement. That fact that he trusted me so much made me work hard in the movie.

Was the movie shot completely outside Chennai?

Only a few patchwork scenes were shot in Chennai. We went to Karnataka, Goa, Mumbai and the places we went to shoot were all new, never before seen in movies. It was a tough journey and every time I finish my Vandhaan Vendraan schedule I lost some weight.

Were lots of scenes shot in Mumbai too?

Yeah. Since my character is from Mumbai, you will see a lot of Mumbai in the movie.

What is the status of your knowledge of Tamil now?

I can understand Tamil if you speak slowly. In my first movie I hardly spoke Tamil and in this movie there are a lots of dialogues and thanks to that, I can understand about 75% of the language.

Do you dub in Telugu?

I dub for myself in Telugu. I am working in my fifth Telugu movie with Prabhas. I play the role of an NRI and I cannot get the accent right and do the producer and director felt it’s ok to let me dub.

Have you watched Kannan’s earlier movies? I haven’t watched his movies but I have seen the rushes and songs of his movies before. Jab We Met remake was a female oriented story. It also didn’t strike me at that time that Kannan is a person who gives importance to his female characters. But only when I was doing the movie I realized the importance Kannan gives his female characters in this male dominant industry.

Kannan gives importance to his women characters

I will try to stay away from remake movies

What is your take on remakes? I will not say that I won’t do remakes. I am scared because I hate the fact that people tend to compare the remake movie with the original and I hate that comparison. As far as possible, I will try to stay away from remake movies but I cannot completely do that. My first Bollywood movie is a remake of an old Hindi movie. I am not saying I will totally avoid but I am a little scared of remakes.

Any difference in the regional film industries you have worked in so far? I love the fact that in Tamil movies they do not want me to put make up and prefer me as I am. That is very easy for an artist. I do not have to worry about my hair or make up but only dialogues. When you are overly made up you are conscious about everything and tensed. That way I like Tamil people a lot. In Aadukalam there was completely no makeup and I even used my regular hairstyle and the clothes were not ultra fashionable so that was a very easy movie for me.

I like Tamil people a lot

Other than the fact that the Telugu folks love films to be larger than life and more dramatic, there is not much difference. In Tamil, people love their movies to be realistic and devoid of cinematic largesse.

I share good professional rapport with Dhanush and Jiiva

Difference between Jiiva and Dhanush Both of them are of the same age, professional and are married with kids. I don’t know both of them that well to really spot out differences. Both of them were equally nice and friendly. I share a very good professional rapport with both.

Do you look for any inspiration from Bollywood / Hollywood movies? No, I hate doing that. I don’t watch a movie for somebody’s performance but for the sake of watching it. If I see someone and start copying their style then my originality is gone. I really would like to grow on my own and make mistakes and learn. That is why I do not have any dream roles because I want to do different roles from my previous movies and hence do not have a fixed role in mind.

I do not have any dream roles

I don’t want to speak bad Tamil

When are you planning to dub in Tamil movies? I don’t think people in Tamil Nadu are really ready to receive a really bad accented Tamil. It took me very long to dub in Telugu movies and it’s a difficult process. I took six – seven days to finish my dubbing but the feeling was amazing. It felt very good and I want to do that in Tamil as well. But it’s not easy to speak in a language you never spoke in your entire life. I do not want to sound really weird and make people hate me for imperfect Tamil. I do not want to land up in that trouble.

How was it to work with Santhanam? It’s very sad that I do not have any combination scenes with Santhanam. I have heard a lot about him and have seen him in Vaanam. Though we are in the same movie, we did not work together. I really would like to work with him.

I want to work with Santhanam

Your favorite song in VV

I love the Anjana Anjana song. I had the same feeling when I heard the Yaathe Yaathe song as well. It is a lovely song.

Your dance moves for the movie

There are subtle dance moves in the movie but no hardcore ones as such. For the Kanchanamala song we tried indo-western style of dance. I am a trained classical dancer and could pick the dance steps fast. I love dancing but I have the opportunities to use them only in Telugu movies.

Your next movie in Tamil

In Tamil I haven’t decided on anything and am listening to scripts. In Telugu I am working in Mugudu with Krishna Vamsi, one movie with Ravi Teja, and my Hindi movie is starting soon.