Y. Sunita Chowdhary
The beautiful Kashmira Pardesi is promoting Vinaro Bhagyamu Vishnu Katha that’s releasing in a couple of weeks. After a long gap, she is back in Telugu cinema and we ask her how the four years since her debut has been. Kashmira says, “I have been constantly shooting in Tamil, shooting for three films. I am also debuting in Bollywood but can’t talk about it now but soon can share details. My debut was in 2019 and since then it’s been four years. There have been few misses and then hits. In Hindi I can gauge the films but this is a different ground and it takes time. I have worked in many languages, I can understand them but speaking depends on the conversations I have with people. Speaking different languages gives you an edge, I love exploring and learning them. ”
Bagging a film from Geetha Arts was a pleasant surprise, she didn’t expect it to happen so suddenly..i.e she was at a temple when the call came. She recalls, “I was in the Balaji temple in Chennai, the replica of the one in Tirumala. I got a call then when I was there, I would term it serendipity. They told me to come to Hyderabad and listen to the script. I had gone just like that, and I realised the film is mostly being shot there. We have shot for fifteen days in Tirupati. The locations are great and Kiran Ababvaram has done a fabulous job, he has the boy next door vibe. Director Nanda Kishore was easy going and I had an amazing time with Murali Sharma. It is everyone’s dream to work with Geetha Arts.”
About her role and upgrading her craft, “You shall see all shades in character, that’s all I can say for now. Mostly I get to play a bubbly girl, the energy of Darshana is fun. I am not like that in real life. She is that hyper energetic and a go-getter. I have some interesting dances to do with Murali Sharma, which was shown in the teaser. During my leisure time, I keep reciting monologues on my phone, and I attend auditions. For the past six to seven months I have been travelling. I stay with my family in Pune. Mumbai is the place where I attend auditions and look tests.”
She adds, “It keeps you grounded, it gives you the feeling that you have to win this game and put your best foot forward. I take my auditions seriously. I don’t know why auditions are not part of the industry sometimes. Now that with the expansion and OTT’s emergence, more interesting subjects are coming up. People want to see you and test you and that’s nice. My Bollywood film happened by audition. The director is someone whose name I had written in my notebook and a couple of years ago I was working in his film.”
How is she finding Telugu? “I am a complete director’s actor, I like to have my lines in advance especially because it’s not my own language. On the sets, I don’t mind when they tweak it, because it is his vision, the blend works and you know why it sounded good when you see it on screen later,” she quips. Kashmira has a lot of gratitude for the people whom she worked with. She recollects the time she spent with them. She also says saree is her favourite pick when it comes to dressing. “The production and Kiran’s team has taken care of me when I was travelling alone, when you are in that space, you work better. I wear only a particular kind of clothing, you’ll never see me in Indo western. You’ll see me in sarees or something that I am comfortable with. I believe the way you drape it and feel in it, it makes you look classy. Although I’m too young to wear sarees every day, It is one of the most beautiful costumes. We have such rich textiles in India.”
