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Dinesh Akula
South Indian actor Tamannaah speaks on her career choices, her image as a fashionista, her popularity in the South, and her personal life. Excerpts from the interview:
You once said Tamannaah – means work in progress. Is the work still on?
It’s always in progress. One should always be a work in progress. But yes, I am definitely much more accepting of what I do, much more accepting of myself. The 'work in progress' state is always going to be there and it should be there for a creative person, I think. This is so you do better stuff and you excite not only other people but yourself as well. You have to be constantly inspired... otherwise, it gets really monotonous.
Suddenly you have become a fashion diva. How did it happen?
It comes from making a lot of fashion mistakes and a lot of terrible cloth choices! It took me a while to gaze at who I really was and to express that through fashion. I think it’s a journey where you have to realize your own personality and what you are most comfortable in...because at the end of the day, you can be wearing the most expensive clothes or you could be wearing anything that is considered dramatic and yet, you may not feel comfortable. You might not show the same kind of confidence. So, I guess the moment you find yourself in the process, it all starts falling into place.
You are multi-tasking from Bollywood to Tollywood and commercials. How do you manage it?
I feel women have a natural knack for multi-tasking. It comes to us very naturally. I also have a jewelry business which is predominately taken care of by my father. But I do supervise it on and off. I feel creativity should not be bound to any one medium. I think the sky is the limit when you want to express your creativity. It could be through clothes, through movies, through jewelry or any other creative process that excites you.
You are doing so well in the South. What went wrong in Bollywood?
I had an array of not likable movies. It affects the kind of offers you get and I think definitely Bahubali was a huge redemption from what I went through in the few Hindi films I did. But, I still feel I am alive and I still have the chance and opportunity to do the kind of work I wanted to do. Success and failure are a part of this business. You can't take everything seriously because it happens to the best of best -the biggest of actors have gone to the lowest of lows and just sprung back.
This year's most awaited movie is Baahubali Part 2. How did the role in the movie change you as a person?
People thought I was a girl-next-door. My acting skills were not utilised to the fullest. Then, of course, Baahubali happened and it projected me very differently. Even I was surprised when Raj sir asked me to do a character so brave...fighting a 6 ft 3 inches Prabhas! It's the biggest turning point in my career.
I have a lot of friends from the industry whom I can call up and genuinely take advice from and I still do that. 90 per cent of the people may not be like that but the remaining 10 per cent are there and I feel like you can invest them in as people
Do you regret missing out on many things in life as you took up acting at a very young age?
I don’t know any better. I haven’t seen the other side. I don’t know what I have missed and I don't know what I should regret... I still feel that creatively, there’s a lot I haven’t explored. I think I'm ready to explore a lot more, so I don’t regret or look back because I don’t know what I have missed.