Transcending borders

Her first film,Siva Manasula Sakthi,took about eight months to finish and released about four months ago. The incredible part is that it is still running in theatres all over Chennai!

Bhagwat has also acted in Maduraisambavam,an action film which is due to release next month. “ I play an encounter specialist who is portrayed in negative shades to her character. The perspective of the story shows her in a negative light,but in reality,she is just trying to do her duty,” she says about her new movie.

The switch from Marathi and Hindi to Tamil could not have been easy. “It was a lot of hard work,but I managed it in the end,” smiles she. “I had to start working a month before the shooting started,learning all my lines by heart. I had a language coach who not only taught me the correct pronunciation of the words,but also their meaning,so that I could understand what I was speaking.”

So can she speak Tamil fluently now? “ Not really,” comes the reply. “Apart from my lines,I have picked up a fair amount from my interviews,which are mostly conducted in Tamil. I can speak enough to get by,but can’t really converse,” she admits. Though she is primarily doing Tamil films now,Anuya hasn’t lost touch with her roots at all. “I did a film called Mehek,directed by Kranti Kanade,who was my senior at FTII. The cast of the film was entirely from Pune,and it got international recognition from prestigious institutes like the London Film Festival and the Houston Film Association,” she says. Mehek is now part of the syllabus at the Otterbein University in Ohio,along side critically-acclaimed films like Swades and Mr and Mrs Iyer.

Despite her success in Kollywood,Anuya has no plans to settle there. “I’m kind of like a gypsy,” she grins,“I will go wherever I get an opportunity to be part of quality cinema. I love experimenting with my roles,and the script is my only criteria for selecting a movie. I especially like acting in art films that are screened at film festivals,as they don’t have to worry about public demand. This ensures an interesting script as well as an important message portrayed by the film,” she adds. Bhagwat does not have any films in the pipeline as of now,but after her recent success she is optimistic that the offers will come soon.