Meet Madhu Shalini V 2.0

This year has been all about exploring myself
This year I got a lot of time not only to explore myself, but new places as well. After

Cheekati Rajyam

with Kamal Haasan sir, I was free. So, the year started with a long holiday to Bali followed by a trip to the US. And then, I took off to Goa with a friend recently. I had been to Goa earlier for a wedding, but this was technically my first visit because I got to explore the city. we clicked lots of pictures, did street shopping, enjoyed the food and caught a couple of dramatic sunsets. It was one memorable and relaxing trip before I kick start my upcoming projects.

And now, I’m going to
an acting school!
I know, I know, everyone rolls their eyes when I say that I have enrolled in an acting class. I guess it does sound odd since I have already done so many films, but to be honest, this is best thing I’ve done! I’m unlearning what I had learnt till now and learning a whole lot of new things. When I watched Kamal sir on the set, I was awe-struck. I realised I have such a long way to go! i was never a trained actor to begin with. My training in Kuchipudi helped me with my expressions, but now I’m learning to deliver lines and other technicalities. I am growing as an actor.

Rejection in a film gave
me reality check
A few years back, for no reason particularly, I started feeling very low. To deal with it, I kept eating and gained a lot of weight. A time came when I couldn’t even fit into my clothes. During this period, I was approached for a Tamil film. When I went to meet the makers, they were baffled. They said, ‘Oh my god, you’ve put on so much weight’ and they rejected me. That was a reality check; it hit me hard. I went into depression. But then, I decided to gain my confidence back and getting back into shape was priority. I started doing yoga, meditation and worked hard on my body to be fit. Trust me, after that, I have become more confident as a person.

people talk, so what?
I’m happily obsessed
with myself
Doing

photoshoots

gives me a high. People think and I am self obsessed and overdressed all the time, but I don’t care. I’d rather be over dressed than underdressed. That’s how I am as a person. Even as a school kid, I would be very particular about my school uniform — it would be tailormade just the way I wanted. My mom used to be so annoyed and wonder what’s wrong with me. But even today like playing ‘dress up’ (laughs). I keep trying new looks in my photoshoots. I recently did a black and white shoot in madhubala style, and everybody’s been telling me that I look like Madhubala since then. So I went ahead and did another one in Rekha style! (giggles). For me, doing photo shoots is one way to explore myself. In front of camera as an actor, you are designed to look in a certain way your director wants you to, but during photo shoots, I’m a free bird. I think I’m too obsessed with myself.