Popular actress Nayanthara can now be seen in ‘Nee Enge En Anbe’, which released locally last week. In this interview with OneIndia.in, the star talks about the film…
ACTRESS Nayanthara, pictured, who is basking in the decent opening of her southern remake of hit Hindi movie Kahaani, says she usually does not like women-centric movies, because they are too much of a responsibility for an artist.
The remakes, which have been titled Anaamika in Telugu and Nee Enge En Anbe in Tamil, were released locally on Friday and received a good response from the moviegoers.
“I usually don’t like to do women-centric films because it’s too much of a responsibility on your shoulders. Everything has to be correct. But when I saw Kahaani I thought this is one film which I would want to do in south (the Tamil film industry),” Nayanthara said.
She says that Anaamika is not a frame-to-frame copy of Kahaani.
“If Kolkata was a character in Kahaani, old Hyderabad becomes an important character in the remake. A lot of changes have been done in the south (Indian) adaptation. It will not be like a cut, copy and paste of the original,” she said.
Nayanthara has stepped into Vidya Balan’s shoes in Anaamika, which is directed by Sekhar Kammula. But, unlike the original, it does not feature Nayanthara as a pregnant woman in the remake. Although Nayanthara wanted to play the pregnant character, she says her director thought otherwise.
“It was completely Sekhar sir’s call. From the very beginning, he didn’t want the pregnancy part in the story, and I was very scared about this because that was the main plot about the film. He wanted to make it even more challenging without the pregnancy part.”
Asked whether she hoped the film would result in an award for her, she said: “I usually don’t aim for any awards. When I’m doing a film, I do it with all (my) heart. The reason I did the remake is because I really liked the script and I thought it would be like a nice suspense thriller. It’s also a strong woman-oriented film.”
Not apprehensive about playing pregnant characters, Nayanthara feels actresses should be flexible.
“In Sri Rama Rajyam, I played a pregnant character through most of the film. I also have two kids who are about 10 years old. I don’t think all this should stop an actress from doing a role because I believe we should be ready to do anything for a character.”
In her opinion Anaamika is a realistic film. “When you see it, you’ll realise how realistic it is: from the costumes to make-up, we also shot in several real locations. All this makes it a very realistic film”.
Anaamika also features Vaibhav Reddy, Harshvardhan Rane and Pasupathi in important roles.
On working with Sekhar Kammula, Nayanthara said: “He believes in more of reality and doesn’t understand the commercial cinema. Since I’ve been a typical commercial films’ heroine, I had my doubts about working with him, but it all changed after I started.”
Kammula, for the first time directing a remake, brings to life Nee Enge En Anbe – a story of a woman who is on the lookout for her husband, who’s gone missing.
Nayanthara arrives in Hyderabad to find her husband missing. Reddy, playing a police officer, assists her in the search to find him.
With nothing to rely on except fragments from her memories about him, all clues seem to reach a dead end when everyone tries to convince the woman that her husband does not exist. She slowly realises that nothing is what it seems. In a city soaked in lies. – oneindia.in
• Nee Enge En Anbe is screening at NuMetro cinemas at the Galleria and Pavilion malls in KZN; Emperor’s Palace and The Glen in Gauteng and Canal Walk in Cape Town.