Rachita Ram has always been known as a star’s heroine, until she signed Bharjari. She has so far worked with all the top stars including Darshan, Sudeep, Puneeth, Ramesh Aravind, Ganesh and Sriimurali.
Chethan Kumar decided on her for his movie, two years ago, because of her dimples and of course her charm. The director believed that she would be a perfect heroine for Dhruva Sarja, who was doing his third film.
Rachita, in a conversation with City Express, says that she had been looking forward to working with a younger crowd. “I had so far been lucky enough to do movies with the seniors in the industry,” she says. “In Bharjari, I trusted Chethan to deliver a good script and then Dhruva is a happening hero who has delivered two massive hits, Addhuri and Bahaddhur. He is so full of energy and the team is passionate, all of this helps my career profile.”
Rachita, who had worked with senior actors and on relatively quiet movie sets, says that she initially had trouble adjusting to the loud noise on Bharjari sets. “Eventually, I started liking it and gained more confidence around everyone… I was not distracted,” she says.The movie has been 20 months in the making, seeing many delays, but Rachita has no complaints. “It has been a great experience,” she says. “Even though I worked on two to three films in between, Bharjari was a priority. The team had it tough but they worked around the dates and took an effort to make me comfortable.”
It is not often that you see a film running on the lead actress’ dimples, and Rachita blushes when asked about it. “My dimples have been lucky,” she says, adding, “I was told that I am the only one who have them in the entire family. Before my smile, the dimples come out. In Bharjari, there was the Action Prince and the director setting the story around my dimples… I was game for all of it. I even had a line on my dimples in a song from Bulbul, lyrics had been written by Kaviraj. Bharjari also has a song about my dimples. So I think I have earned my title Dimple Queen, which Sandalwood has given me.”
After working with stars, did Rachita find it difficult to work with up and coming artistes?. “Nobody is a star,” she says, “they have all earned it. I started my career with stars but I do not think that I am one, and it embarrasses me when people think so much of me… I don’t like it. I want to tell everyone that I am still a newcomer and Bharjari is my eighth project.”“I am ready to work with everyone, provided there is a good story, production house, director and team,” she says.
“Moreover, Dhruva Sarja is being said to be the Darshan or Sudeep or Puneth of tomorrow. My next is Ayogya, which has me paired opposite Sathish Ninasam, and it is newcomer Mahesh’s directorial debut. I believe it is a good script.”Though Rachita is said to be considering movies in other languages, she says she will take a while to decide on that. “Everyone looks for a change, and so am I. But, this industry has given me a lot and I want to remain faithful to it,” she says. “Of course, there is lot of politics that I am not aware of, but something of that sort happens everywhere. This industry taught me to act better, not to manipulate people and situations to advance my career. I prefer to eat what is in my plate and I am enjoy that… I do want to grow in this industry.”
’Dhruva Sarja and I are close friends’
“We have fought many times,” she says, adding, “We are like south and north poles but, in Slovenia, we became good friends. Dhruva looks strong from the outside but is a tender-hearted person. As an actor, he supports every artiste and technician and heartily appreciates good work. There have been rumours about our closeness. But, that may be because we are of the same age and we have a lot of things in common to talk about… we enjoy being mischievous.” says Rachita.
Chetan is unbelievably patient “For a new director, he could handle 150 people on the sets simultaneously and he did that well. If he keeps being patient, he will grow in the industry,” she says.
No qualms about sharing screen space with heroines
Heroines are usually not very happy about sharing screen space with other actresses, and Rachita is working with Hariprriya and Vaishali Deepak in Bharjari. “I am not one to decide on the script, and I will never stand in the way of a director’s vision,” she says.
“It is his call to bring any number of heroines for he knows better what the subject needs and I was confident that, irrespective of the number of actors, I make sure to give my best shot. In fact there was a lot of give and take between us on the sets. Hariprriya has worked in a lot of good films and Vaishali is relatively new, and I had a lot to learn from both of them.” Rachita adds.