Regina Cassandra talks from her heart or doesn’t talk at all. There is nothing shallow about her; her journey in the film industry though it began as a dream wasn’t consistent or should we say was a bed of roses. She faced the regular highs and lows and battled the latter with dignity and time had only made her stronger. The gorgeous woman is poise personified and after seventeen years in this cinema field is back making news. Directors are flooding her with offers and all of the roles are well fleshed out, Regina remains calm and humble and is taking each project as it comes. In a chat with Y.Sunita Chowdhary of Klapboardpost.com, the endearing Regina Cassandra bares her heart and soul, there is no trace of complacency. She still has the same dedication and fire in her approach to her work, without which she wouldn’t have lasted this long. Some excerpts:
Regina belonged to a period where success or super star status meant acting with a star hero. She had a rare combination of glamour and talent and could fit into any role but was in a space where extraneous factors would decide which film she was supposed to be in. It is extremely frustrating for an actor to follow such fundas and rules to sustain in the business. It is then, she decided to take a leap and pick roles of her choice, that gave her a scope to perform and most importantly were the films for her soul. While Shakini Dakini is up for release, Mareechika is in the last schedule. Does she find this time and space interesting? She says, “It is very interesting to see how things evolve. Some twenty years ago heroines used to be typecast, they were told that their shelf life is five years and that only good ones last. Also the gyan given was that only when you do films with super stars, you will have a place/hold in the industry i.e there will be respect only if you do films with big boys. All of this changed while I am still in the industry.”
Ask her if that was her courage that helped her withstand all this, did films outside the territory and is still reigning supreme. She quips, “Courage? I don’t know if it is courage or maybe it is stubborness. When a film would release and it would do well, they would say why don’t you wait for a big film ..you dance well, you act well, you have great screen presence. I was waiting for an A-lister in Tamil cinema, the director and everyone wanted me in the film..but he didn’t want to work with me because I was doing small films. I understand it and we all know in big films, sometimes, the actors have a say in who is being cast. Luck has a lot of role to play and I didn’t hit that spot. It is an amalgamation of a lot of things, you can’t pinpoint, it differs from film to film.”
There is a slight change yes but does she think none of the female actors are waiting to work with stars and are grabbing stories that appeal to them? As a matter of fact, she says, “Firstly everyone’s path is different, I see younger ones are aggressive with social media and are forthcoming. I see them asking for things which are good and empowered women are the best. I came into the industry without any backing and that time my mindset towards films was different. I never came here wanting to be a numero uno. I was getting opportunities to be in films without doing anything like portfolios etc. Nag Ashwin was an assistant director in Life Is Beautiful and he said I should audition for it. It let us try it out and it became a career. I was going with the flow. Today everyone knows..social media has a huge role in promoting oneself and the film. When I was here there was nothing other than Facebook; now you have Twitter, Insta etc..everyone knows you need to have a presence everywhere. It is like I lived on the planet for a long time. I deleted my FB account in 2012. Once my shoot is done, I would like to go swim, climb a mountain etc. I wasn’t immenersed anyone’s career arc, I wasn’t curious to know about others’ lives. I was happy being on set being put in the right frame.” True, quitting Facebook does not just give you the much required mental peace but also helps you in many other ways- you save your time, stop comparing yourself with others, stop feeling alienated by the opinions of others and save yourself from dealing with useless information.
How did she deal with the many suggestions, advice from managers, well wishers? The actor shares, “I didn’t know what path to take, I was clueless then, whatever my manager got, I would do if I liked it or said no to things I didn’t like. It was as simple as that and there was no promotion as such. I understand now that social media is important for your films. Post pandemic, film promotions have gone completely digital.” Does she introspect at the end of the day? “For introspection I do have space. It has everything to do with my mental space. It has been 17 years right now in the industry. I have become a stronger person, to the extent where I know I am fine…come hell or high water. It is about the fact that I know that I can manoeuvre through anything today. This I say because of what I have been through experiences that I never thought in my life that I would be put through and knowing that it will happen again in life. I am absolutely grateful that I went through good, bad, ugly. I am a stubborn person and also adapting”.
Actors lead a stressful life. Some remain private and some come out and talk about it, about the painful fight with depression. Today there is no stigma attached to depression.The gorgeous actress normalises depression and she reveals that from a headache to depression, she has identified the root causes and has learnt to deal with it. “The other day was the worst day. The previous night I slept with a headache because I wasn’t happy with a few things going on. The next morning I had a few interviews to do. It is simple, for a headache, I need to hydrate and sleep, I need to cut out everything and sleep. I understand where it is coming from and I do that first and see if I can’t help myself. It affects me when I can’t handle work, if I have to explain too much to people to get things done and when people are not willing to learn and work. If the same person is doing the work for two or three months and if I have to explain the work again and again…it gets to me. I believe in spreading love, unless I tell them the 100th time..I don’t get irritated. I am working on myself too, I am also a work in progres. Talking about a problem helps quite a bit. When it is work related, I can understand it easier in my head. It is not emotional, it is a work thing right? I consciously try not to repeat mistakes, there should be consistency in what you are doing”.
The film industry has made Regina stronger and that itself means, it has put her through ups and downs. She has never been to a therapist but is well aware what it is to go through that stage.”I can say that I have been having bouts of depression which is not normally me. In 2016, I would wake up crying, there was apathy. I studied and I know what I was going through. Depression could happen due to hormonal imbalance too and I thought that it was that because I was aware of what was happening, I could understand..the things I did and said. It was a mix of personal life, and what my career was doing to me and both had an equal role to play. I wasn’t anxious with what was happening because I knew and I understood these things I had to do to get out of it. I was almost thinking I was done and didn’t want to listen to scripts. When my first few films were releasing, I would never sleep on Thursday night and that came from a place of not knowing. It is not that success or failure would affect me. It was anxiety pre-release. Now I am in places where there is no network. I get that if you are not there for pre release, people will talk about the lack of visibility. I won’t be there for the Sakini Dakhini release as I have a shoot in Meghalaya. The PR is constantly talking of visibility, I understand by not being there, it will be a setback but I can’t help it. There is nothing much I can do about it and I hope for the best”.
How does Regina recharge and stay grounded considering that the glam world has people who cannot handle success? She reveals she works non stop and does miss friends and family. Her family is very small and she is a detached person. She adds, “That is mainly because my job makes me that way, it is easier to handle things. I have to deal with a lot of different people. My professional world and personal world are poles apart. My co-stars can meet my close friends but will I be able to do two things together, no way. It doesn’t mean they are not genuine. I am adaptive, I have this and that too. Some of my friends would talk about an actor I don’t know personally. I would laugh, because I know what it is to be on this side and know their perspective as such. It is more like, I understand mindsets. I am not rigid and this is how things are, it helps me see perspectives of life. Certain people look at it this way, certain that way and probably I will only know the truth”.
Does she miss having a boyfriend or would she say she is married to her career? She avers, “Saying I am married to work is used and abused cliche. I have so much to work, I don’t have time to be there for anyone. If I can’t fulfill someone’s emotional needs, how can I ask for it? Unless someone else is okay with the fact that I travel this much, maybe we can work around it. I am open to the idea of having a life partner. After being in many relationships, seeing and witnessing, I can understand how much I can give, and what I want and what I don’t want as well. I am happy that I am processing. In 2020 I had a break up, I am happy being myself, working with thoughts and feelings, being in this state. I am constantly jumping from this character to that..from airforce pilot to evil sister, Mrinalini Sarabhai..playing diff roles. I honestly, when I decided I shouldn’t be doing films, I didn’t know if I would last this long. I feel sad that even today after so much evolution, we are hyping up the fact that once a heroine starts doing herone oriented flm, she is at the fag end of the career. It is sad that people think like that. The hero’s presence is so strong, if a film flops, they say it is just a bad bout and the next film will be nice. Their remunerations don’t reduce. At the end of the day I am a part of it, it is a fight, I can’t deny that”.
Finally, we ask Regina if she carries her characters home, dwells over them and if she takes regular breaks to beat monotony in work? She responds, “The moment the director says cut, the shot is done. Unless I think I haven’t done a good job, I will ask for one more. Otherwise, when they say pack up I am gone. Early in 2011, I would spend time on next day’s dialogues because I didn’t understand Telugu. It all depends on how much grasp I have on character story and scenes. I do a fair amount of thinking about the script, would spend time with the writer and director but only if I see a need to do it, that is not a pattern. Each role, scene and experience is different and it is not the same thing everywhere. I never take my character home after my last schedule. I am done with the role and I can’t afford to take one character home and keep it, it will be detrimental to the other role I’m playing in a film. The fact is that life is so fast…there are vast differences between the roles. I can’t have the same body mannerisms, same expressions etc. About breaks, I take a break whenever I can afford, I don’t put my foot down and say I need these holidays. For me, it is actually sitting at home, in my room in Chennai that makes me happiest.”
