Avant-garde about her roles

A Mangalore girl born and brought up in Mumbai, her tryst with cinema happened when she was signed for Anup Bhandari’s blockbuster RangiTaranga. And now, she’s back with the same team as she stars in the highly anticipated bilingual titled Rajaratha in Kannada and Rajaratham in Telugu. We caught up with actress Avantika Shetty, who got chatty about her third movie, her love for challenges and more…

Talking about her character in Rajaratha, she says, “I play Megha, who’s very different from how I am in real life. She’s delicate, shy, timid, soft-spoken and not the kind who fights for her rights. She’s a very feminine girl, the kind that the guys in college want to go out with. When I looked at myself on screen, I couldn’t relate to Megha at all.”

Considering this is the second time she is working with the Bhandari brothers Anup and Nirup, Avantika didn’t have to build a rapport with them as the trio already shares a good camaraderie. “The first film was more like a college project with all of us getting together and doing every single thing. But this one’s a big project — we had more people around and our jobs were specific. It was really tedious considering it’s a bilingual,” reveals the actress, who learnt Kannada after entering the industry and can now mouth her dialogues in Telugu as well. “Due to the language barrier, I prefer to get the script in advance, so that I get time to prepare. Also, Anup is pretty organised and sorted, so working with him was easy for me. I feel blessed to do his second film as well,” she smiles.

The actress reveals that she hasn’t signed anything post Rajaratha and is someone who loves to challenge herself with distinctive roles. “I’d like to do a character like Sridevi’s in Sadma. It’s been a while since someone’s done something like that — but the role should not look caricature-like and should look like how it was in the original film. I’m open to other challenges too,” says the Tulu hudugi, who’s also up for a full-on action role, thanks to the fact that she’s been learning martial arts for nearly three years now. “I’m even planning to learn some musical instrument, and try my hand at singing. I’ve always liked to sing, but folks at home told me to limit it to the bathroom!” she quips.

As for her hometown, the Shetty lass visits it at least once a year. “For the past six months, I’ve been juggling between Bengaluru and Mangalore. My granny’s not keeping well, so I’ve been visiting my hometown often. But home is Mumbai — I was brought up there and my family lives there too,” she says.