I have been the face of multiple brands, and have had a lot of fun shooting for them. My first ad was for a glycerin soap brand. It had a Cinderella theme and I was quite excited at that time. Then, I did another for a beauty brand. I don’t really know if my ads led me to my first film because Hanu sir (Tollywood director Hanu Raghavapudi) reached out to me through a coordinator in Mumbai. That’s how my first film, Krishna Gaadi Veera Prema Gaadha, happened.
Shooting for an ad and shooting for a film are different experiences. When I had to do
my first shot
for the Telugu film, I was a nervous wreck. But only when the camera would roll. I would be perfectly comfortable with my scene while my director was setting up the scene. But the minute he would say, ‘Clap, scene No 1, Take No 1, Camera Rolling, Action’, I would get confused and go blank. This happened five-six times. So, to make me comfortable, he would keep the camera rolling all the time. My first shot was quite auspicious — I would be praying to God and reciting a slokam.
In Tamil, Nenjil Thunivirundhal was my first film, but it was also shot simultaneously in Telugu. At that time, I was not very comfortable with both the languages. So, shooting for the film was quite a blur for me. However, I remember the first scene of Pattas — it’s the one in which I’d be this meek girl waiting for Dhanush to give me way on the road. That shot was okayed in the second take. Shooting with a star like Dhanush was quite an experience and has opened doors for me in
Kollywood
. Artistes usually dream about Bollywood, but I want to do more films in Tamil.