Shying away from the 'Ultimate Hottie of the South' tag, bestowed upon her by an online poll, actress Shriya Saran seems keen to wean off the image stuck to her.
“I wasn't the prettiest girl in school. A friend of mine from over 20 years ago contacted me after seeing the poll and said she couldn't even recognise me now. I had oily hair and spectacles. I was popular more for my dance than my looks in school.”
“In cinema, if you wear western clothes, people think you’re going to party and getting drunk every night. But if you wear saris, you’re considered a saint. These perceptions need to change.”
She says it took her 14 years in the industry to get work “that feed the soul”. Excited to be a part of 'Dhrishyam', opposite Ajay Devgn, she said, “I felt like I was reading Murakami. It's such an intelligent story told in a simple way... it's not often you get to work in films where you don't know who's good and who's bad.”
Talking about her limited exposure to cinema before entering the industry, she fondly recalls watching movies while growing up in her hometown in Uttarakhand. “I’m from a typical middle-class family and I grew up in a place without a theatre. We lived in a BHEL colony where movies were screened in an open-air screen called Jhankaar. I remember going there with my mom while it rained, sitting under an umbrella and watching old Hindi movies. I also remember being in awe after watching 'Titanic' in Jaipur when I visited my aunt. My knowledge of cinema was very limited, and now, to be sharing screen space with National awardees like Ajay Devgn and Tabu...”
