Bhavana looks stunning in her new look, all because of hitting the gym. She visited a dietician and got herself a new stylist too. But none of the Malayali filmmakers had asked her to alter her figure all these years, what mattered to them was only performance, modulation during dialogue delivery, timing of her lines and expressions. Even the Tamil directors had told her they loved her bubbly and chubby look as they were tired of the skinny girls.
The change came in her after working in Mahatma with Krishna Vamsi. Krishna Vamsi apparently told her that she needed to be toned, and didn't deserve to be a heroine if she wasn't willing to sacrifice her fondness for junk food. What more, he made her go without makeup in the movie. While shooting, she got tanned but he didn't mind it, he wanted her to be the Krishnaveni (the character) and not Bhavana.
She says, “I wore jeans and looked into the mirror and just exclaimed… Oh My God! Now I feel great and confident. Not that I lost weight drastically, but it has done so much to my self esteem. I'm now wearing just about anything, shorts, skirts and tops with off shoulders. I'm tired of those salwar kameezes, half saris and saris. Even Priyadarshan says he's proud to see a Malayali girl taking her fitness seriously.”
Bhavana is currently doing a film with Mohan Lal that will be directed by Priyadarshan who is back to Malayalam movies after four years. She's just wrapped up Mr. Love , a Malayalam film and is in the process of signing a Tamil film too. Her Kananda film with Sudeep is half way through.
Bhavana recollects growing up with a dream to become an actor. When she was five years old she saw Amala's Malayalam film Enna Surya Putrika by Fazil and used to imitate her in front of the mirror. In the film, Amala jumps from a building and breaks her hand and Bhavana too wanted to do the same and wanted a broken arm.
Apparantly her parents wrapped a bandage to please her and even now when they see a song or a snippet of the film they tease her. In fact as a child she told her parents that if she wouldn't become an actress she would at least marry one. She defines herself as a restless and a confused person, and some one who's hard to handle.
The girl from Trissur who made her debut in films when she was 16, smiles and says, “One day I would tell my mom I would marry, next day not for some years and then after a few days I tell her emphatically about not marrying and settling down in life with an adopted child. My mother says okay for everything.”
