Professionally, I haven't done any film in 2013 as I was studying in NYU.
I am super lucky to have a resume which has all kinds of filmmakers and films and hence experiences as a person and actress for me.
If I am destined to do more Telugu films, I will.
To create a new resume of films and expressions is the only focal point for 2014 for me.
I was supposed to do Beautiful,' and when I watched the movie, I knew that I had missed out on a great opportunity.
'Striker' is a story of the human spirit triumphing over all odds.
I just cannot fathom the criteria and the eligibility for awards as there is an ocean of difference between the state and national awards.
Shwetha Menon is my good friend and I have nothing against her. But, the Kerala State Award for the Best Actress has been given to her for Paleri Manickam' in which somebody else dubbed for her. I received only the second best actress award for my performance in Pazhassi Raja,' where I have dubbed in my own voice.
If the character you play on screen has to have life, you should dub in your own voice.
The starting point of social movements stems from deep pain and intolerance towards loss already incurred and hence any gain including just voicing the injustice empowers the movement and everybody else around them.
Lack of dignity and equal opportunity at workplace for women in cinema is a truth that needs role reversal.
WCC is not an arbitrator, it's a collection of people who represent and protect the interest of women in cinema. We are an organisation that facilitates solutions for a just work space and don't see ourselves as arbitrators of justice.
It wasn't because of Striker's bad performance that I didn't sign any film in Bollywood. There wasn't much to do in Bollywood, and the offers weren't great too.
I'm excited to work in Bollywood, but I want to be part of meaningful projects.
Apart from being an actor, I'm an academician. I wanted to pursue something with which I could bring about a change in society.
I'm an army kid with floating feet.
Hyderabad is home after all. This is where I grew up.
I would like to be part of all kind of cinema and will jump at any opportunity that allows me to experiment as an actor.
I am hungry as an actor.
Usually people are apprehensive about facing the camera for the first time. But for me, it was the most natural thing.
I started dancing at a young age. When I became busy with films and studies, dance took a back seat. Also, it was constricting for someone like me, who is not religious, to do something which is so deified.
I felt I should get back to stage performances because I really enjoy them.
I don't believe in cutting down or increasing the number of films I do.
Some years you have more work and some years less. That does not bother me. What matters is the end product.
I am a greedy actor, and it upsets me losing work I have wanted to do, but that is a motivator not a dampener.
I have been part of films like Rajamanikyam' and Seniors,' which had genuine comedy and I am comfortable with the genre.
Tamil has given me an experience that's extremely rich from Vishnu's Pattiyal' to Chimbudevan's Irrumbakottai,' to even a small significant role in Ram's Thangameengal.'
Yes, I have had more commercial success in Malayalam but that doesn't mean I can't do with more in Tamil.
I've never been linked to a co-star or director, never had drunken stupors or been disrespectful of a producer's position. I don't have parents intruding in filmmaking affairs and so on. I'm a professional and like to look at myself that way.
The only philosophy that I'm not confused about in life is love.
I am basically a theatre artiste. However, after stepping into cinema, I did not get much opportunity to act in plays.
Malayalam actress Ann Augustine, director V K Prakash, writer Jayaprakah Kulur and I have planned to produce quality dramas and to take it to a wide range of audience. We are making some popular works into stage plays.
I have acted in 20 films in various languages and won 13 awards for my acting skills.
I am not a good actor. There is much more to do and learn.
I am not against the idea of looking sexy. But I don't like women being looked at as mere objects of sex.
In any language, I would like to do my best!
I am a director's actor. It is a director's medium, definitely. That doesn't mean I stop using my head.
All my directors have tried to draw the best out of me at that point of time.
I am not revolutionary or experimental, but I am curious and love to explore and indulge in life.
Cinema is a male-dominated bastion and one has to be patient.
It's a misconception that an intelligent person can't act and I want people to discard such notions.
I hate flashy metrosexual men. I prefer a rustic man who will make a long-time companion.
I had a smooth take-off in Malayalam, I would like to explore more and take up films that are different in Tamil.
I always celebrated my birthdays with my parents. There is no question of not being with them on that day.
In spite of its relatively nascent rise in popularity, tea joints across the country are romanticized, quite like beer pubs in the West.
It has been a fairy tale for an outsider, bouncing from one film set to another, choosing my films as assertively as those films chose me. And through this journey I have not once faced the dreaded syndrome of the 'casting couch.'
The Hegelian dynamic plays out daily on and off the film sets - women are not lesser beings, but because they are assumed to be, they are subjected to inferior conditions. And this inferiority projects itself through the feeling of weakness and subjugation.
The Weinstein story and the way it has shaken the roots of Hollywood has made apparent the fact that, across the world, there is a pressing need to recognize and correct the circumstances women subsist in, in order to move forward.
In a crazy, high-pressure environment like a film set, eventually a peculiar kind of empathy develops for your co-workers.