Vijay Kumar, who was busy with his Telugu debut, Veera Simha Reddy starring Balakrishna, is back to working on his directorial project, Bheema. The shooting of the film is 50% complete and now the team has revealed its heroine. Newcomer, Ashwini A, who comes from a theatre background will be playing the female lead opposite Vijay.
According to the team Bheema, the director, who has been particular about the casting, did not go with the glam factor and was looking out for a performer. Finally, he felt Ashwini was the perfect f i t through the auditions. Ashwini, who joined the first day of the shoot on Monday confesses going through mixed emotions, as it has been almost a year since Vijay confirmed her as the heroine of Bheema.
She managed to keep the secret under wraps for the longest time. “I’m glad to begin my cinema career under Vijay sir’s direction and share screen space with him,” says the newbie. An MBA student specialising in HR, she has involved herself in staged plays under the theatre Tatkal group and Abinaya Taranga for more than three-and-a-half-years. “I always wanted to be an actor, and here I am.
Currently, I am unable to explain the feelings I am going through. This is a really big deal,” she adds. Ashwini, who will be dedicating two months of her time to Bheema wants to focus more on her acting. However, she will not give up on theatre.
“Acting in theatre is a learning curve, and it will continue.” Vijay, turned director with Salaga, is now helming his second film, Bheema. The film reunites him with many of his technicians, who were part of Salaga. Bheema produced by Krishna Sarthak and Jagadeesh Gowda has Charan Raj scoring the music, and Maasthi penning the dialogues. The cinematography is handled by Shiv Sena, and Deepu S Kumar is the editor.