As the CBSE results began to roll out on Monday morning, most 12th graders would have number-crunching to figure out what cut-off they’d managed. Shravanthi Sainath is an exception. The girl who shot to international fame for playing a small but lingering role in Oscar-winning film Life of Pi, admits that her sights were more ‘realistic’.
“I was never thinking of making 90 percent or getting a very high percentage, well before my exams,” she says candidly, after learning that she had made a modest 65% in her boards. How much was she gunning for? She giggles, “70 per cent actually, but I’m quite happy with this,” she adds.
Contrary to what a lot of people might think, Shravanthi wasn’t away from school shooting for Life of Pi, during her 12th standard. The month-long shooting schedule at Puducherry happened just before her 10th board exams, “My school was great. All they asked my parents was ‘will she write her boards?’. They didn’t mind the long absences and even took the pressure off by telling me to aim for marks realistically,” recalls the pretty 17-year-old, who plays Pi (Suraj Sharma’s) girlfriend in Pondy.
Picked by filmmaker Ang Lee for her looks and skill at classical dance, the girl from SBOA Higher Secondary School in Anna Nagar was waiting to attend an interview for college admission at a top women’s college in Nungambakkam, when City Express reached her.
“They called in the morning and said that we had to come today and finish the group discussion and interview today itself. So we rushed here,” says the girl who has her sights set on studying Visual Communication, “I think I did quite well so far, so I guess I’ll be a college girl soon,” she adds chirpily.
It’s got to be difficult trying to be part of projects that can match up to an Academy Award winning film that you debuted in, but Shravanthi says she is determined to pick her roles. “I have a couple of film projects in the pipeline but I have decided to take things slow and do character-oriented roles that I like for the next few years,” she reveals.
So no commercial potboilers then? “That’ll come later, for sure,” she laughs. And will she be able to manage life in college and films? “I’ve done it through two board exams, trust me, I can do this,” she says in a surprisingly resolute tone.
