The pretty actor shot to fame with Bollywood’s Vicky Donor. Yet Yami Gautam, the heroine of Prakash Raj Productions’ Gouravam, started her career in the South. “I started off as a model and my first few ads were for Tamil and Malayalam commercials. I recall shooting with Rajiv Menon in the early days,” says the actor in a chat with City Express.
It’s been quite a ride for the actor all the way from her birthplace Chandigarh to Chennai. After a few Hindi TV serials, Yami started her film career with the Kannada flick Ullasa Utsaha, followed by Nuvvila in Telugu and Hero in Malayalam. But Gouravam seems to be special to her. She says, “I was thrilled when director Radha Mohan narrated the story of Gouravam. I play a law student called Yamini. The law angle has a strange similarity to my real life. I was among the top 10 rankers in the entrance exam for the law course in Punjab University. I couldn’t finish the course since I moved to Mumbai but I am still studying. In fact, I wanted to be an IAS officer but destiny had other things in store!” Shooting for Gouravam made her very nostalgic, she says.
The story is based on honour killings and Yami reacts strongly to the topic, “It should be abolished. Education is the key element in carrying the message to the next generation so that they don’t continue with this evil norm.” Yami is all praise for Radha Mohan for guiding her through the film. “I was nervous the first day since I wasn’t familiar with Telugu and Tamil. I was worried about how I was going to perform credibly with the lengthy dialogues. Radha Mohan sensed my anxiety and said, ‘Don’t worry, I have faith in you. You’ll do it well’ Those words gave me the much needed reassurance at that stage,” she recalls.
Known for her performance driven roles, is Yami open to doing commercial, mass masala films in future? “Why not? I would like to do films which mix creativity with commercial elements in the right measure!” she shrugs. The actor is currently part of Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum in Tamil and Aman Ki Asha in Hindi. Which industry is she going to concentrate on in the future? “When I joined films, I had no idea about the industry. I am lucky that I met directors who have taken me ahead step by step in my career. I believe that creativity cannot be barricaded by language. So in the South or in Bollywood, I’ll take up anything good that comes my way!” she concludes.