Varalakshmi Sarath Kumar has done challenging and powerful roles across all South Indian languages. She is now busy with two Telugu films besides many Tamil films. “I never plan anything, there is no deliberate move to do films. Whenever a good role comes, I go for it,” she tells us.
Varalaxmi made her Telugu debut in Tenali Ramakrishna last year. In the last couple of years, she has been in Hyderabad a lot. She now has Naandhi and Krack on hand.
In Krack she plays Jayamma. “I have to speak with an Ongole accent and it’s a powerful role,” she says.
According to Varalaxmi, her USP is her voice. “I feel that I know what emotions I have to display for my role. So when I dub my own voice, I can improve it and it looks natural on the screen. I always prefer to give my own voice for all my roles in any language,” she says.
“Before a film starts, I request the directors to allow me to lend my own voice to my role. I tell them that if they don’t like it, then they can opt for dubbing,” Varalaxmi reveals.
Recently, her web series Addham was released in a private channel, but she didn’t lend her voice for it.
“They said they didn’t like it. I get angry if I’m not allowed to dub my own voice. But it was during the lockdown and in any case I couldn’t have done it,” she says.
Does she do any homework, we ask. “I don’t do much homework,” she says.
“Generally, I read the character notes when the director narrates the story to me. For the Telugu films, I request the directors to give me my dialogues one day in advance, so that I can prepare,” she adds. Varalaxmi knows Telugu because her mother hails from a Telugu family.
When asked to comment on the fact that she has been doing more negative roles of late, she says, “I never take my roles as negative or positive. I look at them as cinema and I think there is space for female negative roles, so I am getting them. I would like to play all kinds of roles, but they should be prominent.”
Varalakshmi reveals that she never discusses her films with her father, actor Sarath Kumar. “I am an individual and I would like to decide on my own about my films,” she stresses. The actress also tells us she is directing a film. “It’s a thriller and female-oriented and I am acting in it and also directing it,” she says, adding that for this film she has to do some kind of homework as she is handling two departments.
There’s also a possibility that Varalaxmi may act in a biopic.
“Talks are in pro -gress but it is too early to talk about it,” she says.
