Popular south Indian model and actress Sanjjanaa is well-known for her gorgeous looks and glamorous roles in films. But what many might not know is that the pretty actress was a tomboy in college.
Having done her graduation in CEBA (Computer science, economics, business studies and accounting) from Sindhi College of Commerce in Bangalore, Sanjjanaa admits that she spent a large part of her college time on modelling. “College life was minimal for me as I was already working actively as a model. Being popular was one side of it, but the other side was working hard to attend classes and focus on studies,” says the actress, who has starred in over 30 films in Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu.
Describing herself as a notorious student, Sanjjanaa recalls an incident in college which still remains fresh in her memory. “I was once caught reading this book called Men are from Mars and women are from Venus by John Gray in a Hindi class. The teacher snatched the book from me and made me sit in the front row. I had to spend the rest of the class concentrating on what the teacher was saying and at the same time plotting different ways to steal the book from her,” reminisces Sanjjanaa, who shot to fame in Puri Jagannadh’s Telugu film Bujjigadu in 2008.
“Apart from this, I did a whole lot of other crazy things. I would often pick fights with boys, because I was a tomboy,” she recalls.
Being a successful model while still being a student, Sanjjanaa was naturally very popular in her college, and despite her notoriety, she would manage to scrape through her exams after a week of last-minute preparation. “I was a creative student and was never for the books. While nobody could beat me in co-curricular activities, I could never sit and study or read through a textbook without falling asleep. Fortunately, my mum was extremely supportive and she would always read out and explain every single page of each chapter to me so that I could understand and then go write the exam,” she shares.
Sanjjanaa confesses she wasn’t exactly the darling of her professors. “Nobody liked me. They treated me like I was some murderer, who had slaughtered 2,000 people and then had come to sit in their class. That seemed like the vision they had of me,” she quips, with a smile.
The actress admits that her college life helped in shaping her career as a model and then as an actress.
suhas@newindianexpress.com