Post Baahubali, Tamannaah will be seen in Oopiri opposite Karthi. Says Tamannaah, “My character’s name is Keerthi and I play a PA to a billionaire, and she is well educated, well dressed and also stubborn.” She has replaced Shruti Haasan in the film. Asked about it, she says, “I don’t know for whatever reasons, they could not take Shruti on board and I landed the role.”
For the first time the actress is dubbing for her own character in Telugu. “I have enough experience and I can do my Telugu dubbing perfectly without any help,” says Tamannaah. She, however, is not dubbing for the Tamil version of the film. “I started with Telugu first and will try Tamil later,” she says, adding, “I suggested to director Vamsi that I should dub and he helped me.”
“Completing your performance with your own voice is so important. It’s not only my face and expressions …the voice added to it always feels good,” she says.
Tamannaah adds that Oopiri is not a remake of the French film Intouchables, but more off an adaptation. “I am the only person in the unit who has not seen the original film. People spoke about the film so much that I decided not to see the original, because I didn’t want to keep the original character in mind,” she says.
Director Vamsi decided to change her look for the film. “He is a very stylish director and told me to change my look and I worked on my body language too,” she says. There was a long gap between Baahubali and Oopiri. She says, “I do not want to be the typical ‘heroine’ as I want to do some interesting films.”
Talking about Baahubali Part Two, she says, “I don’t have much of a role in the second part, but I feel that Baahubali has done magic to my career. I am more than excited to be part of the sequel.”
Also, she has been so busy that she doesn’t even have the time to fall sick. “I’ve beenbusy promoting my latest Tamil film and I’ve started another film with director A.L. Vijay. “I don’t believe I have to do 10 films a year. But my next film is a tri-lingual releasing in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil and that’s why these films are time consuming,” says the actress.
And finally, talking about Nagarjuna in Oopiri, she says, “It’s a challenging role to play as he sits in a chair throughout. He has to give expressions mostly with his face. Two people were literally appointed to see if he moved his legs or hands and bring to his notice immediately. Only Nag Sir could do this role,” she says.
Tamannaah says that she feels blessed that Nagarjuna’s family loves her. “They are the sweetest and nicest people on this planet. They are so dignified and understand the craft so well,” says Tamannah. “On the sets, Nag sir always commented ‘you look nice’. Vamsi and Karthi never noticed me as they would just walk in,” she adds with a smile.
