There is something about her name, which sounds musical and stately. Regina Cassandra, who hails from Chennai, is the newest entrant in the Telugu film industry. Articulate with a clear voice, this pretty woman has already done a couple of Tamil movies and a Kannada film before signing SMS (Siva Manasulo Sruthi) to be directed by Tatineni Satya.
It is not without reason that she seems comfortable before the camera. Regina has been working on commercials ever since she was in standard IV, her first one being the Fun Skool ad, followed by her job as an anchor for a kids channel called Splash.
However, she made her debut in the hit Tamil movie Kandanaal Mudhal when she was in standard IX, followed by the Kannada film Surya Kanthi . A graduate in psychology from Women's Christian College in Chennai, Regina wanted to take a year off before taking a final call on joining movies. “I'm going to take this career very seriously. I did get quite a few offers when I was in school from big banners but mom wanted me to study and I had no qualms. In this field, people respect you when you are a qualified woman. I know there is a lot of hard work here and I'm prepared to give it my best shot.”
Balancing studies and movies is tough, says the actress, and did not want to push or struggle to survive in the industry. Her plan B has been to return to being a counsellor if things didn't work out in films. Does she watch Telugu films? Regina confesses to not having watched any Telugu film but made it a point to see most of the songs on television. She adds, “It's fun to do different genres. I like the fact that I can play a variety of characters, different from what I am in real life.”
The only thing she knows about her co-star Sudheer is that he is Mahesh Babu's brother-in-law.