\'Our film\'s title was chosen before Pushpa released\'

Ananya Raj, who was part of  Hindi films like 7 hours to go, City of Dreams, Ghost, etc., is now gearing for her Tollywood debut with Thaggedhe Le, directed by Srinivasa Raju. The title happens to be part of a famous dialogue from the film Pushpa, starring Allu Arjun.

Surprisingly, Ananya says the filmmakers had registered the title before Pushpa was released last year.

“I read the script in December 2020 in Mumbai and we decided on the title Thaggadhe Le. It’s a great coincidence. We started shooting around July 2021,” she asserts, but admits that it’s hard for her to convince people about the sequence of events. The actress reveals that the entire team was surprised and thrilled when the dialogue Thaggedhe Le became famous.

She says like Pushpa, her film is set in the Rayalaseema region.

“Our film is a revenge drama between a cop and commoners — it picks up action as the film progresses,” she shares, adding that there’s also a beautiful love story woven into the script. She plays a honey trap for the protagonist Naveen Chandra. “My role is mysterious and there’s also a lot of drama and intensity to it,” she reveals.

Born in Lucknow, Ananya grew up in Mumbai and was a model and a theatre actor before entering films. She says that her theatre experience came in handy. “I wanted to become an actress and make a career in the entertainment industry from my childhood but I did not know how to get a breakthrough. After having tried modelling, films came to me,” she explains.

Ananya has also shot for a Tamil film, a remake of 2019 super-hit Telugu film, Brochevarevarura. She says working in South films has been an enriching experience. “It’s giving me a different vibe; this experience is making me understand what cinema is all about,” she explains.