Sreeleela gets chatty about playing Sriimurali's love interest

The past two years have been quite eventful for young actress Sreeleela, given that she decided to foray into films shortly after her Class 10 exams, with not one, but two projects that went on floors almost simultaneously. Her debut, Kiss, hit theatres a few weeks ago, and now, she is gearing up for the release of her next, Bharaate. “Since I signed up for these films, my life has been nothing short of a whirlwind — managing school, dance classes, and my shoot schedules. Now that

Kiss

has released and

Bharaate

is up for its date with audiences this week, I can finally take a breather and focus on my studies for a while,” she says.
Bharaate pairs Sreeleela with Roaring Star Sriimurali and the glimpses of the film that the team has let out so far have focused on him. “When I took up Bharaate, I knew that it was a commercial entertainer with a star at the helm, so, naturally, the spotlight would be on him. But for someone like me, who is just making baby steps in the film industry, it makes sense to balance the kind of projects I do and include movies with stars. True, Bharaate is a lot about Sriimurali’s character, but the focus is also on the story, and each of us on the big ensemble cast contributes to the narrative. As the romantic interest, Maya, my role is not just about song-and-dance sequences and looking pretty. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to reveal much about the character or the film,” she says and adds, “What I can say is that my experience of working on Bharaate was very different from Kiss, because I was told to be very subtle in my body language and way of emoting, expressing some things only with my eyes.” And Sriimurali, says the young actress, was the most chilled-out co-star. “I had no idea what to expect on the set of Bharaate. I was still shooting for Kiss, where I had a fellow debutant for company, and both of us were undergoing workshops. Then, I walk in to work with Sriimurali and I was not sure how to behave myself in his company. I was quite nervous too, but as it turns out, he was quite cool on the set. Sriimurali, as well as director Chethan Kumar, went out of their way to make me feel at ease during the shoot, even though my first day with them was with a heavy-duty scene that involved a lot of drama,” says Sreeleela.