It will be a busy birthday for Sharmiela Mandre. The actor has turned producer, which has doubled her responsibilities, and Sharmiela says she will not only be answering innumerable birthday wishes but will also spend the day dealing with production-related stuff. “Since 2020 went almost in the lockdown mode, and none of us worked most of this year, I am kind of looking forward to filling in for the lost time,” she says.
The actor’s first production venture in Kannada, Dasara, is currently rolling. The team has timed the release of posters around the Dasara festivities, and unveiled the latest look of Sharmiela from the film. “Dasara, which is a thriller written and directed by Arvind Sastry, will show me in the role of an investigative journalist named Anika.
The film also features Sathish Ninasam and Rukmini Vijayakumar in the lead cast. Of late, I have been watching the works of many investigative journalists and I have understood the depth of the character more now. Anika is very outspoken and modern as compared to Devi’s character, which is played by Rukmini, who is traditional in her approach,” she explains.
Dasara is all the more special for Sharmiela since she is also the producer. “There is an assumption that since I am the producer, I get to play the biggest role, but that is not the case. My focus in this project is more on the film’s content, and I am happy to see the way it is shaping up,” says Sharmiela.
The film’s first schedule was shot entirely in London, and the plan was to resume the shooting in March. However, it got pushed because of the lockdown. Sharmiela then met with the accident, due to which 2-3 months were lost. “We started planning for the shoot in June, but the permission was not given. People were scared and the actors themselves were not ready to venture out.
Now that everything is eased up a little, we have resumed shooting,” says Sharmiela, adding that she is making sure to abide by the safety protocols. “The pandemic requires us to draw a big list of dos and don’ts, and I am making sure that it is followed to the ‘T’. Since I am the producer, my priority is to check on their team’s well-being, and I don’t want anyone to get infected,” she says.
Going by Sharmiela’s career graph, it is clear that she is not seen on the screen a lot, compared to some other heroines. This is a conscious decision, she asserts. Apart from Dasara, the only other film on her platter is Yogaraj Bhat’s Gaalipata 2. “I do films out of passion and never for the monetary part of it, and there been no compulsion to do a film,” she says.
Coming from a background comprising a handful of producers and distributors, Sharmiela’s obvious choice was entering the field as an actor, and also as a producer. “My production responsibilities began over the last two years, and as per my initial plans, a Kannada film was supposed to be my first production venture. However, the project being fresh, I decided to give some time for the director to develop a good story. In the meanwhile, I produced two Tamil projects.
One has got released, and the other film starring Shriya Saran is ready to be out. It just got delayed due to the pandemic,” says Sharmiela, who is also getting ready for her next production venture in Kannada.
She also plans to enter the web series space. “Since Kannada doesn’t have too many web series, I am working on producing them too,” she reveals.
... says Sharmiela Mandre as she talks to CE about how she is looking forward to celebrating a busy birthday, juggling her acting and production responsibilities for her upcoming film Dasara, and her plans to foray into the web series space