'If you get a film with Darshan, you’ve got to accept it'

She may not exactly be a newbie, having done a few films in Telugu already, but as far as Kannada audiences are concerned, Tanya Hope is a debutant — one who, interestingly, already has four films in her kitty. The former Miss India finalist’s first release here is one of the most highly-anticipated films of the year, Challenging Star Darshan’s,

Yajamana

, which she is following up with projects opposite Upendra, Abishek Ambareesh and filmmaker Sunil Kumar Desai’s next.
Yajamana, she says, happened after a quick meet with producer

Shailaja Nag

, who had chanced upon an article about Tanya’s film with Upendra. “The story, no doubt, intrigued me, but the deciding factor was that it is a Darshan film,” says Tanya. The thing about entertainers featuring A-list heroes, though, is that much of the narrative tends to revolve around them. "If it is a Darshan film, it has to be about him, but with Yajamana, there are two tracks, one of which has him working on a mission with my character, a journalist, and the other, his romance with Rashmika (Mandanna),” says Tanya, adding, “Even though I have done a few films, I still think I’m a newbie in the industry. So, when you get an opportunity to work with a star as big as Darshan, you’ve got to take it up. It’s a good career move for me to be a part of a project like this. Also, if you look at the entire team — including the producers B Suresha and Shailaja Nag, and directors

V Harikrishna

and P Kumar, along with Darshan — there were varying levels of professional experience that I got to see and learn from. Today, I think I am a far more confident actress than I was before Yajamana.”
In the film, Tanya is also part of one of the most glam numbers — Basanni Ba. How does that figure into the scheme of a journalist? “My character, Ganga, is not all about glamour, and this song, in particular, is a celebratory dream sequence that happens after there is a victory in one of my missions,” she says.