Take Two

After clocking 40 Tamil and Telugu films in seven years— with directors like Mani Ratnam,Selvaraghavan and Prabhudheva—actor Trisha Krishnan seems to have have run out of challenges in the South. So,the 28-year-old,who has several awards under her belt,is making a debut in Bollywood by romancing Akshay Kumar in Priyadarshan’s Khatta Meetha. Seated on a couch at a Mumbai coffee shop,the petite actress,dressed in a cream shirt and denims,has the air of a curious child. Smiling easily,she admits that it is the craving for good roles that brings her to Bollywood. “Barring a few new filmmakers,the South industry is male-dominated. The audience prefers to watch heroes fighting or flying. Women still don’t get good roles,” she says. Bollywood,she adds,is changing: “A film like Fashion is commercial and yet has strong female protagonists.” She is also glad that the concept of song-and-dance numbers is fading away here. “Though

I am now used to dancing,and that too fast steps as is the style in the South,I have never really liked much of it,” she admits with a laugh. Priyadarshan,who gave the actor her first break in the Tamil film Lesa Lesa ,is also steering her career in Bollywood. After a slew of successful multi-starrer comedies that the filmmaker is known for,Khatta Meetha comes with a “social message”.

The movie addresses the issue of road mafia in small towns and rural India. Kumar plays a road contractor while Krishnan is a collector. “It is a love story and also a comedy though Akshay is the one who brings in the humour,” she explains. With the movie set to release next month,Krishnan admits that she isn’t one bit frazzled about her “second” debut. “Neither success nor failure daunts me. Besides,I am here to try out something new and not to be the next number one heroine.”