It’s going to be celebration time for Regina Cassandra with Christmas being just a day away and with the release of her movie on Thursday. “People ask Santa for good things, so this time I asked him to make my film Soukhyam a good one,” says Regina. The actress is going to celebrate the festival in Hyderabad. “Yes, my mother is coming down to Hyderabad from Chennai to bring in Christmas together. On this day, I attend the midnight mass and savour on plum cakes and wine.”
Regina feels that her upcoming film Soukhyam opposite Gopichand will be a perfect Christmas gift for her. Talking about the film she says, “I have experimented a bit in the film as I have done a more comic act,” she says, adding that she has also got to dance in the film after she missed dancing in couple of her earlier films. Talking about Gopichand, she says, “Once he gets to know you he talks a bit more, otherwise he only focuses on his work.”
This year has been good for Regina as her earlier film tasted success and she is confident about this one too. Asked if she was aiming for the top league, she says, “I have set a personal goal and I also maintain my own standards. I am critical about my work, thus I grade myself. Out of 10, I am still at five or six probably, and I still have time to reach my goal. Only then will I be satisfied with my work.”
"I have friends in different walks of life. So I usually take their opinion about my work and then go along with their views,” she says. Asked how she was handling the huge workload, Regina says, “Actually, when there is a lot of work I get anxious and scared, because I don’t know whether I can handle it or how to carry it forward. I want to work at a normal pace, not in a hurry. I definitely want a holiday as I can’t work 24x7. I need at least a two day break in a month as I just can’t work continuously. I don’t want to appear as if I am a busy actress because anyhow people will come to know once my films release. I just want to do good work, but at the same time I need breaks,” says Regina.
She says that she didn’t expect her career to take off this way when she started with SMS a few years back. “Honestly I didn’t expect it. After my first Telugu film, I got many offers, and I decided to spend one year acting. If they didn’t like my work I wanted to complete my psychology degree. I didn’t have any ambition to become a big actress and do many films at that time. After my first film I got offered Routine Love Story, after which I made up my mind about pursuing a career in acting. I take things as they come,” says Regina.
She has been appearing in quite a few commercial films too. “At the beginning many said that I was not fit for a commercial film. I started thinking why can’t I be a commercial actress? I want to be versatile and do everything. I should fit the bill, so I am doing commercial films too,” she says. When asked about her relationship with Sai Dharam Tej, she smiles and says, “If I say we are good friends, you will use the same headline in quotes. I am here to work and I am doing my work,” says Regina.
When asked about her visiting him on the sets, she says, “I went to greet him on his birthday.” Asked why she was doing fewer Tamil films these days, she says, “If you distance yourself from the Tamil film industry for one year, they will offer you projects the next year. But here in Telugu cinema if you stay away you may not get another chance. I am getting a lot of offers here. Moreover I can’t concentrate on many things as I don’t like to juggle between industries,” she says.
The actress is also into social service. Recently she cycled to create awareness about para-athletes. Now the actress has taken up another social cause where she has joined hands with Teach for Change, an initiation supported by DC.
“In government schools there is no extra curricular activity, because there are no physical trainers. So we take up a few schools in and around Hyderabad and appoint a PT or a coach to teach sports. Most of the kids come from lower middle class families, get into bad habits like smoking at the age of 16, because there’s nothing to keep them occupied. So apart from studies if we can engage them in a few sports, they can be good sportsmen in the future,” she says.
So, how is she planning to spend New Year’s eve?“I don’t have any special plans for New Years as I have to attend my friend’s wedding on January 1 in Chennai,” says Regina.
