Set for a bigger role

Abhinaya

Abhinaya, who wowed audiences with her performance in Sambho Siva Sambo , is now playing the second lead in a tri-lingual starring her favourite star Suriya in the 7th Sense . The Shruti Haasan and Suriya starrer is slated for release in July. Director A.R. Murugadoss finds time to wax eloquent on his special actress Abhinaya who is set to stun the audiences in a role of a princess. She appears for around 20 minutes as Suriya's love interest in a period drama in the beginning of the film. “I needed a divine face, she's like an angel and she fits the bill perfectly and the Tamil audiences are very fond of her,” says the director.

Murugadoss met her during the making of Stalin in Hyderabad. Her father played the role of a security officer in the film and one day he walked into his office along with Abhinaya. It was then he'd come to know that she was a gifted child but suffers from hearing impairment. He spoke to her for 45 minutes and couldn't forget her for two weeks. After Gajini he drafted a story for Suriya and he required a character and immediately thought of her. The director says that all of us speak with our mouth but Abhinaya uses every part of her body to communicate, she is so sharp that her brilliance is on par with that of 100 people in his unit. The director recollects, “One day she came up to me with a wrapped gift. I asked her what it was and she replied there was a bomb in it and made the sound of a bomb and laughed aloud. I went home and opened it, I found a beautiful coffee mug with her picture on it and the words… ‘Thank you Anna'. Usually heroines address me as Sir but she calling me ‘anna' really touched me.”

Just not looks and performance, Abhinaya endears herself to many with her bubbly nature on sets. During gaps in the shooting she imitates Suriya, dances like Karthi, imitates the director and a lot more people, informs an amused Murugadoss.. Punit Rajkumar and family who usually rope in only Kannada actors for their films insisted on having Abhinaya in their film after seeing her. She became a darling of their unit in no time. She also wrapped up Shasi Kumar's

Easan before signing Suriya's movie. So how does Abhinaya begin her day? She does gymming and yoga, plays Sudoku, browses the Net and watches a lot of films with subtitles, her favourite ones are

Paa and

Black . A tutor comes home too. She goes shopping and for shootings she is accompanied by her assistant and good friend Bilwal, a Chinese cook who was with the family since Abhinaya was two years old. Her family had a fast food centre and Bilwal would carry her in his arms hold and cook. Her mother recollects she charmed people from the time she was born, at the hospital the nurses fought to give her a bath. Is her mother worried about her future? Hemalatha says she has surrendered her to Goddess Moogambika. Abhinaya is aware of her disability and once said

Abhinaya paapam illya and the mother became her best friend, jokes and plays her daughter's age.