The Internet has got my age wrong. I'm 49, not 47: Amala Akkineni

Animal activist, dancer and actress, Amala Akkineni speaks to Hyderabad Times about her idyllic childhood, simple upbringing and her inspiring journey from

Kalakshetra

to T'town

With a poise that cannot be feigned, Amala Akkineni makes you believe that she has a face that can launch a thousand ships. However, minutes into a conversation with her you realise she does not celebrate vanity at all. Her candid confessions make you laugh ' 'The internet has gotten my age all wrong, I am not 47,' says Amala as she lets out a laugh, 'I am in fact 49.' Amala never let being married to

Nagarjuna

shape her identity. She is so much more than just a cookie-cutter mould star wife ' she is a dancer, an actress, an animal activist and now a mentor to budding film students. But the credit of making Amala the champion she is goes to her upbringing and unconventional schooling.

Amala narrates, 'My father was from East Bengal. Having lost everything to the Partition, he came as a refugee. Noticing that he was very intelligent, a doctor sponsored his education. He then got through to

IIT Kharagpur

after which he joined the Navy. While growing up we all did our own work' I remember, we had a sign on our bathroom door which said 'Gandhiji cleaned his own bathrooms, so must you'.' Speaking of her mother's contribution to shaping her, Amala says, 'My mom is Irish. She is a poet and a humanitarian who believed in ensuring that people around her had a better life.'
Growing up in Kalakshetra, Amala fell in love with dancing, animals and handwoven sarees. 'If there was an animal nearby, I just had to be friends with it,' she recalls as she cuddles two stray dogs whom she has christened Thelma and Louise. She goes on to say, 'My school was one of the most beautiful places a child can grow up in. You are surrounded by nature ' cats, dogs, birds and buffaloes everywhere. Here, I developed a love for animals as well as handwoven sarees. I was so comfortable wearing a saree ' I could play any sport in a saree. We even learned to dance in a saree... it is so comfortable.'
From that idyllic upbringing came the jarring shift, when the young actress married a star (Nagarjuna) at the age of 24. But no matter how different Nagarjuna's illustrious life was from her upbringing, she 'never really felt like a 'fish out of water' because she was 'like a tortoise who always carried her world with her.' Trust an animal lover to come up with that analogy!
However, there were incidents that could have made anyone else in her place feel like an outsider. 'Although I speak five languages, I am not really good at all of them. My Telugu elicited a lot of laughs initially. People would laugh at my face and make snide remarks, but I chose to communicate than sit on a high horse and pass judgements.'
Despite all of these initial hiccups, Amala has made Hyderabad her home and has constantly tried to make a difference in the world around her. That's probably why she took up the onus of mentoring budding filmmakers and has taken her role very seriously. 'I am the type who will always roll up my sleeves and pitch in no matter what the task is ' be it tweaking budgets, finding props or acting in some role for their projects.'
It might seem that the oh-so-balanced Amala has done enough already, but she insists there's a long way to go. She wants to make this state a better home for animals. 'This year, I started Blue Cross centres in four districts. This is a pilot project, based on which I plan to expand across the state.'
Amala strikes you as an beacon of positivity but is there anything that she would have done differently, if she could go back in time, we wonder. She says, 'I would have told myself to go for Vipassana much sooner! I fought my way through life before that. I would have told myself, 'Cool down girl, go for Vipassana'.'
Her 25-year long relationship with her husband grabbed a lot of attention and not always in the most flattering terms. Speculations and rumours aside, we wanted to know, straight from the horse's mouth, what it is like to be a star's wife and being a part of a prominent T'town family. She instantly replies, 'The minute we enter home, we are a family like any other. We have our ups and downs, joys and sorrows, just like any other family. Nag might be a star, but as a husband, I don't think there was any occasion where he has made me feel anything less than an equal partner. It doesn't matter, if he is in a roomful of beautiful ladies because his eyes would always be on me,' says Amala, before concluding with a million-watt smile, 'My husband treats me like his queen. That look, when our eyes meet, is always reserved for me and I know that.'