Rakul Preet Singh is the most sought-after actress down South. She has a handful of releases and projects in the offing.
“I always like to keep myself busy with work. I didn’t take a break for three and a half years and I enjoy what I am doing,” says Rakul. The actress awaits this Friday release Jaya Janaki Nayaka and she calls the film a pure love story filled with heart touching emotions.
“The love story in Jaya Janaki Nayaka is not superficial and reminds us of some beautiful stories of the bygone era. The action sequences in the film are derived from the emotions of the characters.” The 26-year-old star plays Janaki in the Boyapati Srinu directorial and explains that she had worked incessantly hard to portray the character.
“My role has two shades and one of it ends up cracking under depression. I have to dramatically demonstrate mood disorders, show sadness and loss of interest on screen. Fearing distracted from the role, for those 10-15 days, I hardly spoke to my mother. I stayed blank all these days as I couldn’t think of anything negatively.
Boyapati sir would often joke: “Shot aipoindhi…inka navvachu koncham (The shot is over and you can smile now).” It’s the most emotional character that I have played in my career.” The petite beauty admits that she couldn’t get over the character (Janaki) and felt exhausted after the day’s shoot. “I’m romantic at heart and hate to cry.
But to portray Janaki’s role, I cried so much that my eyes got puffy and to reduce swelling, I used to put an ice pack on my eyes. Thankfully, I’m blessed with everything in my life and to detach myself from the role, I used to watch films, listen to music, do rigorous workouts and spend some time with my brother.”
The Nannaku Prematho actress is paired opposite actor Karthi in Tamil action-thriller Theeran Adhigaram Ondru.
“The film is set in lower middle- class backdrop and Karthi and I will be seen as lovers turned young couple. The film beautifully captures husband-wife relationship.
It’s a wonderful role which feels husband is her world. I’m sure that audience will enjoy seeing me in a new avatar.” Rakul is enjoying her stint with Kollywood and heaps praise on Karthi.
“It feels great to be back in Tamil. My co-star Karthi remains grounded and is very friendly. As I’m not familiar with Tamil, he turned my tutor and used to explain each dialogue and lyric to me on the sets. It was a wonderful experience.”
Another big film in the pipeline is director AR Murugadoss-directorial SPYder, about which Rakul shares, “I play a medico and she is a confused soul.The character will be hilarious and her actions leave the audience in splits of laughter.” For the first time, the actress is shooting in two languages for a movie. “We shot a song separately in Telugu and Tamil for 10 days. It’s really confusing and the whole experience was taxing because, if its lips in Telugu, its eyes in Tamil. It’s an altogether different ball game and a challenge worth taking up.”
Her co-star Mahesh Babu is dubbing his lines in Tamil. Ask Rakul if she is dubbing for her character, pat comes the reply.
“I’m not dubbing my lines in Tamil as I’m still honing my language. Until the time I start speaking in Tamil, I will not give it a shot. However, I’m comfortable with Telugu and will try to dub myself for one of the films in future.”
Rakul recently signed a Hindi film Aiyaary under the direction of Neeraj Pandey. Ask her is it a conscious decision to sign a Bollywood film when she is at the top of her game down South, she reacts, “I don’t plan things and always go ahead with my own gut feeling. I sincerely believe only our hard work and dedication take one to great heights. As for Aiyaary, working with Neeraj has been great.”