HYDERABAD: Dheepa Ramanujam makes her debut in Telugu films with Mahesh Babu-AR Murugadoss film. She has earlier worked in Arunachalam, Uttama Villain, Pasanga 2, Rajini Murugan, Idhi Namma Aalu and the much talked about Pichaikkaran,Bicchagadu in the dubbed version. Reacting to the fact that Bicchagadu having done better at the box office in Andhra and Telangana compared to Tamil Nadu, Dheepa laughingly says, “Maybe Telugu people have more attachment towards their mother. I can’t think of any other reason. But seriously, when director Shashi narrated the script, I knew he had a winner in his hands. In India ‘mother sentiment’ always works, when I saw the film I knew whatever language it is dubbed into, it would be a success. I saw people cheering and clapping, it had a right mix of drama and humour.”
Did she foresee herself working in other languages and isn’t she lucky to be a part of all big budget and popular films? Dheepa says although she was told that people would definitely offer her films in Malayalam, Telugu and Bengali, she never believed it as she didn’t speak any of those languages. She had never planned to work with big banners, she says, adding, “I should be comfortable with the team and the role should be substantial.”
Dheepa hails from Sriviliputhur and moved to Chennai for her college education. She has a Masters in Food and Nutrition but pursued her passion for acting after marriage and found her true calling in USA. She avers, “I did some small skits when I was in Madurai school. I got married soon as I finished my Masters and started working as a dietician. At that time a cousin who was connected with a television channel said they were looking for people who could speak Tamil fluently and wanted me to take up a movie based programme. I found myself working as an actor in a television serial by Balachander and I was also a part of Yanam’s theatre group. My husband was on a transferable job, I was pregnant and I didn’t want to keep opening and closing my clinic. So when I moved to the US, I studied direction and began directing plays. I run my company Krea Creations and we do multiple shows in Tamil and English across North America.”
When Dheepa returned to India, she hoped to direct a film. Instead, she was being offered roles in Television serials. She quips, “I kept rejecting roles, thinking I would direct films but after a lot of thought finally I began acting. I rejected a mega serial which I didn’t want to get into..alloting so many days not leaving any time for myself is something I didn’t like. A friend asked if I would act in a feature film as Nayantara’s mom…I did that and the rest followed.”
