She has kickstarted her filmi career with Telugu cinema in films like Manasara and Bus Stop. Now, Kollywood has lured this lass with Nagarapuram and Varutha Padatha Valibar Sangam (VVS). Acting seems to be young Sri Divya’s first love, as she started off as a child artist in Yuvaraja with Mahesh Babu and later acted in several TV serials. She took a break as a teenager, and now, the big screen has drawn her into its fold.
About sharing screen space with Akhil in Nagarapuram, her Tamil debut, she says, “Akhil is quite shy and I used to try to get him to converse! Being my first Tamil film, I enjoyed every day of the shoot.” About Sivakarthikeyan, her VVS co-star, she laughs, “He is a fun loving guy and would play pranks and tease me on sets. After rehearsing, he would change the dialogues later and confuse me. But it was all good fun!” Sri Divya plays a village girl and recounts, “I loved interacting with the locals in the villages we shot in near Theni. They were very friendly and between shots, I would go interact with them in their houses.”
The actor is trying her hand at comedy in VVS. “I play a Plus One student who is quite naughty. I could relate to the role as both a student and a prankster, which I am in real life!” Sharing screen space with stalwarts like Sathyaraj was cause for a little concern at first for her. “I was a bit scared, wondering how I would perform before him. But he treated me like a daughter and we got along very well,” she recalls.
Despite being very young, she exudes confidence, which she attributes to the years spent facing the camera at a young age. “It’s an advantage to have been a child artiste. I am not camera shy nor do I have qualms acting before crowds.”
The girl who admires Mani Ratnam and Bala, wants to do meaty roles. “People remember me even now as a child artiste and have accepted me as a heroine. As heroine, I want to be remembered for the challenging roles I take up. I want to explore roles with scope for acting. I don’t want to just be a glam doll,” she signs off.