Pooja Gandhi was instantly popular when she played Nandini in Yograj Bhat’s 2006 film Mungaru Male. This time around, the actress is creating a different kind of buzz playing ‘Deadly Lakshmi’ in Dandupalya, directed by Srinivas Raju.
With Part 2 of the series set to be released this week, Pooja says the audience is getting impatient and curious to know about this heinous crime and its after effects.
Rarely do heroines try their hand at a crime story, but according to Pooja, it is just another genre and everyone should try their hands at it. “If we are not game to experiment, we should not become an actor,” she says. “The days of stereotyped heroes and heroines are gone. Today script is given importance by filmmakers, who work on concepts. Every actor is trying something new... Similarly, the audience too are drawn to realistic movies. There is a demand for this, and we should deliver.”
Is crime on silver screen good or bad? She says, “The same question arises with films on sex, romance with a tragic ending, or a film on rape victims or extra martial affair... these do not drive people to do anything. Same is the case with movies around crime, every movie creates an awareness. With Dandupalya, even before we told the story to the people, everyone knew so much about the crime and the gang.”
There have been a few directors who could bring out Pooja’s acting talent and the list includes director Yogaraj Bhat for Mungaru Male, Prakash Jayaram for Gokula and Srinivas Raju for the Dandupalya series. “While Yogaraj Bhat gave me life with Mungaru Male, every character I do or every director I work with helps me discover a new dimension of me as an actor. Srinivas Raju has always thrown challenges to his actors. He creates a space in which you are tempted to do such a character and perform. This is my third film with him and I am planning to work on more. Another director who is helping me discover the actor within me is JD Chakravarthy,” she says.
Pooja is happy that she never was typecast, irrespective of the results her movies got. “I have given hits, flops, utter flops, but I don’t have regrets because it was all a process towards making me what I am today. In the film industry, a film can be a flop, but an actor can never be a flop,” she states.
The audience take away from the movie is the need for caution. “The fact that Dandupalya gang who committed such heinous crimes are still surviving, which itself is a surprise,” she says. “It’s time we make sure they are punished. Ultimately, people should learn to be careful and be alert about what is happening in their surrounding,” she says.