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The Big Leap

The newly released teaser of Raavan is dominated by two characters — Abhishek Bachchan and a wet and laughing Priyamani who emerges from the water enveloped in a halo of water droplets.

The newly released teaser of Raavan is dominated by two characters — Abhishek Bachchan and a wet and laughing Priyamani who emerges from the water enveloped in a halo of water droplets. The shot is only two seconds long but is long enough to pique interest in the actress whose ties to Bollywood so far were restricted to her being a distant cousin of Vidya Balan. But that’s not the case anymore. With as many as two big releases — Mani Ratnam’s Raavan and Ram Gopal Varma’s Rakhta Charitra under her belt,the pretty actress has almost found her foothold in the Hindi film industry. “But it’s not a conscious decision I took,” she says with a thick Bengalurian accent.

While she plays the role of Gangula Bhanumati,wife of Maatal Suri (played by Suriya) in Rakhta Charitra,Raavan will have her essaying the role of Raavan’s sister Shoorpanaka. While she has been a protégé of Ratnam for long in the South,she never expected him to give her a break in Bollywood too. “One day Mani Sir called me to his office and narrated the script of Raavan. He then asked me how good my Hindi is. When I told him that it’s quite good,he asked one of his assistant directors to talk to me in Hindi and I was asked only to reply in Hindi,” says Priyamani. And soon she had bagged the coveted role.

It was a slightly different story with Varma,who she met only on the first day of her shoot. “I have always been an ardent fan of Ramu Sir’s movies. He has given some of the biggest hits. So when I got a call from him asking me to act in the film,I was delighted. There was no way I was going to refuse,” says the 25-year-old actress,who found her first hit in a Telugu film Pellaina Kothalo in 2006. Although she debuted in Tamil in 2004,it took her three years to find the film — Paruthi Veeran that got her noticed and also won her a national award. Priyamani managed to prove both her acting credentials and also mass appeal with the film. A year later,in 2008,she acted in her first Kannada hit Raam. “I have acted in all four film industries in the South. I speak all four languages because of my upbringing in various cities,” she tells us.

This is probably one of the reasons why the excitement doubled for Priyamani when she realised that Raavan and Rakhta Charitra would be made in Tamil,and Telugu and Tamil respectively. “It is a rare opportunity and I consider myself fortunate to be doing a single film in so many different languages,” she smiles. But what got her more excited was sharing screen space with some really talented actors like Abhishek Bachchan,Vikram and Suriya. Though she has wrapped her 25-day schedule of Raavan,she still has ten more days of shooting left for Rakhta Charitra. “After this I hope to bag more roles. If not,I am happy in my world down South.”

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