Far from the glamour world

Telugu girl Rakshita’s performance is earning her laurels in Tamil films

Rakshita.

Telugu directors often complain that there are no Telugu girls and that the few that we have aren't glamorous enough to fit the role of a heroine. Yet Anandi, better known by the names Rakshita and Hasini in the Telugu film industry, is making a name for herself, albeit Tamil films.

After some inane appearances in Bus Stop,Green Signal and Priyatama Nuvvichata Kusalama , Rakshita was more than happy to take up Poriyalan written by Mani Maran and produced by Vetrimaran in Tamil. So impressed was Vetrimaran that he offered her Visaranai. She has now joined the team of Trisha Illana Nayantara starring G.V. Prakash. “ Illana means ledha (or) and it’s not Ileana in Tamil. I play Nayantara, a young girl who babysits,” elaborates Rakshita who now speaks fluent Tamil After all, she has worked for a year and a half for Kayal , a Prabhu Solomon film and even dubbed for it. The film fetched her good reviews. She adds, “I wish they dub it and get it out here, I want my relatives to watch it. When I signed my first Tamil film I didn't know a word of Tamil. Prabhu sir's rule was that everyone should converse with me in Tamil and he would even explain the scenes to me in Tamil.”

The actor recollects the trials and tribulations the team went through to make the Tsunami-based movie look real. While 30 percent of the film contained graphics, the rest was all human effort — they would climb 6000 steps on a mountain in Cherrapunji for a shot. She elaborates, “The director created a Tsunami set and from morning to evening we would be drenched in mud and water; a few people got infected in their legs. I too had fever but once we saw the output, we were all excited. The visuals were spectacular. They built a dam and flushed out the water on us. They shot this for around two months. My first day opening shot was the Tsunami scene. I was happy as I thought there would be no dialogue but later on it got tough. I couldn't perform in front of 2000 members but after two or three shots I could do it. My mother got scared that I would be washed away by the water, but I was pretty excited.”

The brightest moment during the making of the film was when Prabhu Solomon complimented in front of the entire unit; she was supposed to shoot without letting off

Tuni (a piece of cloth) from her hand and she held on to it for three days. She signs off, “I am supposed to search for the hero holding the piece from his shirt throughout the Tsunami scenes and in one scene I had to weep holding my mom's photo. He was very happy with my work.”

Rakshita is now doing her fourth Tamil film.

She rues the fact that Telugu directors insist on glamor and want them to wear revealing costumes. During

Green Signal shoot she almost went into depression with friends and family enquiring why she did it. “In

Poriyaalan which means an engineer, I played a simple and a normal girl.

Kayal came as a blessing, the title was about me, the girl's name is Kayal meaning a fish eye. ln the entire film I wear only four dresses and for a year and a half I maintained the same shape of the eyebrow, didn't cut my hair and basically didn't want to disturb my look in the story and also give away my dates. That would be stressful, taking up offers while working here. Earlier I would just grab a film but now my approach to selecting a film has changed after

Kayal ,” she quips.