National Award Winner Keerthy Suresh’s latest ‘Miss India’ sees her as a driven businesswoman Samyuktha who wants to establish her tea business in the United States. The film charts the journey of.a middle class girl who is determined to succeed and would do whatever it takes to achieve her goal.
Did she resonate with her character at any level? The actress candidly responds, “Of course. Firstly, I am a chai lover and the so called war between coffee vs tea is what caught my attention. My character is someone who is close to her grandfather, I have been very attached to my grandmother. Also, her struggle a middle class girl who is so driven to establish herself in a foreign country, that level of struggle and determination made me feel is a way to empower women across, how it does not matter whether you succeed or fail, but take that step”.
The actress, who has had two releases this lockdown – ‘Penguin’ on Amazon Prime and ‘Miss India’ on Netflix – is happy about an OTT release since the reach is wider and content is consumed by viewers across countries.
The actress, who won a National Award for best actress for her portrayal of Cine Star Savitri in ‘Mahanati’, says her endeavour is not to get stuck with just female centric narratives, commercial masala films are required to balance an actor’s career graph. She said, “All that I am doing is sending a message out, be it of woman who made it on her own as in Miss India, Penguin was about a mother child bond, Mahanati was about a top female star and my next is about a girl who excels in sports. I am happy we have a variety of films and characters happening and that I’m getting to explore these. But, usually at the start of your career, commercial films are important and you do end up playing a second lead to the hero, and when you go through that and you come to portraying these strong women, that’s a step ahead. But, we need to balance out with both types of cinema. You have to do full on commercial cinema”.
The actress is back on the sets, with none other other superstar Rajinikanth, and admits she was star-struck as a child and now to be his leading lady is surreal, “I cannot believe that am getting to work with him, I never expected it and here I am on set with Sir and chatting with him”.
So last but not the least who is that one Bollywood actor she would like to share screen space with? Pat comes the reply, “Ranveer Singh”.
‘Miss India’ is currently streaming on Netflix.
