Isha Koppikar considers Chennai her “second home” ever since she made her Tamil debut in 1998 with Kaadhal Kavithai . With back-to-back films, Isha was slowly establishing a strong foothold in Tamil, but she decided to concentrate more on Hindi films. She’s now back in the limelight and will be making a comeback in Tamil with Sivakarthikeyan’s upcoming film, directed by R Ravikumar. “If you put a timeline or a number, it feels as though I’m 60 years old,” laughs Isha Koppikar, who says she’s “immensely” excited about her homecoming.
Hailing from a family of doctors, Isha wasn’t particularly interested in pursuing a degree in Medicine and was looking for an alternative. She started contesting in beauty pageants, which landed her a film opportunity. “These days, youngsters come into acting in their late 20s. But in my case, I was very young when I started out. So, studies and other things came in my way and I couldn’t dedicate myself to South films,” she says, adding, “Since I live in Mumbai, it made more sense in terms of the logistics.”
Isha digs deeper to recall some of her fond memories of Tamil cinema. She was fresh from the success of Kaadhal Kavithai , when she got an offer to pair up with Arvind Swami in En Swasa Kaatre . Considering the immense popularity of the Arvind Swami-AR Rahman combination in films like Roja and Bombay , Isha was thrilled. “I was in awe of him (Swami). He was charming and had a huge fan following at that time,” she remembers, adding, “The songs were chartbusters when they released.”
In the years of her absence, Tamil cinema has changed a lot. And Isha admits that she hasn’t been following Tamil films keenly, although she did receive a couple of offers in the South. In fact, it was her performances in Keshava and Looty that impressed Ravikumar, who decided to cast her in a “tough” role. Isha doesn’t mince words about the character she plays, except indicating that it’s a “femme fatale”, something on the lines of Lara Croft. Composer AR Rahman, according to Isha, was one of the reasons why she agreed for the film. At the same time, she loves action films and is a big fan of Bruce Lee. “I grew up admiring Bruce Lee, be it Enter the Dragon or Fist of Fury . Over a period of time, I realised that we don’t have heroines doing action here. Which is why I prefer doing tough characters.”
Recently, Isha received severe backlash when she said that Sivakarthikeyan reminded her of Rajinikanth. However, the actress is unfazed about the negativity and trolls. “When we say something in public, we mean no harm. It’s sad that people took it in a different sense. It’s not by job to give clarifications. It’s part and parcel of the game.”
