It is a curse for an artiste to be offered the same kind of role that has made one film a hit at the box office. Poorna has been labelled as the ghost queen of Telugu films after three films in a row in which her role is either possessed by a ghost or is a ghost.
The actor talks about her latest hit Rajugari Gadhi ( RGG ) from Yanam, where she is shooting with comedian Srinivas Reddy for Sarvamangalam Sarvalangam . “When Ohmkar told me that it was a horror-comedy I was in two minds. Not many people had tried such a role. I knew the film would run but it has run longer than I expected.
It is a hit because of ‘Shakalaka’ Shankar and Dhanraj, they made it possible. No words.”
Rajugari Gadhi came after she had AvunuAvunu 2 refused at least 15 similar offers that came her way after Avunu and Avunu 2 and she has been approached with four ghost stories after the release of RGG . When they came to narrate scripts, directors would claim to have a different story but midway, they would reveal the presence of a ghost. She laughs, “Now people are saying I should be doing more such stuff because it is working. Actually I saw Manichitrathazhu in Malayalam and I wanted to try the costume Shobana wore, to sit like her and carry that attitude, to feel like a queen.
There was a reference of the photo from that film and I thought I should try it out. That’s how Rajugari Gadhi happened.” She is all praise for Ohmkar’s detailing, as he had worked on it for two years. She observes that people have enough tensions in personal life, so they are just looking for fun.
However, her search for variety has led to Sarvamangalam she plays a woman in love with flowers. Poorna adds, “In Sarvamangalam , I am fond of flowers and I want to own a nursery.
My character talks only to flowers. If she is sad she will go and talk to flowers. It is not a comedy film, it is a nice subject.
It is being shot in Yanam, Rajamundry. Sarvamangalam is the hero’s name. I also played Mohan Babu’s and Meena's daughter in Mama Manchu, Alludu Kanchu , which is releasing on December 25.”
Another feather in her cap is Myskkin’s film Savarakkaththi has her playing a challenging role of a deaf village girl who has studied till the Std. III and is a mother of two children and pregnant again. She quips, “I considered myself lucky when I heard that two popular actors had rejected the role and I got it. They asked me to get tanned for that role.
It was hot in Chennai and I would walk without an umbrella to become darker, sported no make up.
The sad part was that I was shooting simultaneously for Mohan Babu’s film and I couldn’t do much about my de-glam look.”
