Southside Story: Bhavana
Twenty one year old Bhavana from Trissur had come a long way since 2003 when she made her debut with a mega hit Malayalam film Nammal directed by Kamal. The role of Parimalam, a deglamorised slum girl fetched her an award and plenty of offers from the tamil and telugu film industry. In a chat with Metro Plus, Bhavana says that she had set her priorities in life when she was around six years old – either to become an actress or marry a film star.
The actress recollects her childhood days and adds that she was never the studious type and was obsessed with films, “ I indulged myself in reading filmi magazines, reviews and spent most of my time watching TV programmes.” She quit school and joined an Open University to finish Plus Two. Her father was a cinematographer who later gave up his full time job and took to freelancing. Who introduced her to films? I’m known as Karthika, my screen name is Bhavana.
My family friend showed my snaps to a director and he wanted to meet me. I remember speaking so much that the director said that he found his heroine, he wanted someone just like me bubbly and outspoken. After that I had done innumerable films and right now I’m busy winding up a Tamil film Jayam Kondan with Vinay. Then there is Twenty:Twenty in Malayalam with big stars like Mammootty, Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Dileep, Jayaram and Prithviraj.”
Bhavana waxes eloquent on how working in Malayalam cinema makes one understand life better. She finds it enriching to interact with such fantastic actors but says that most stories revolve around middle class families. Tamil industry on the other hand is more professional, does big business, gives good remuneration and also has a wider audience all over the world. She says working in Chittiram Pesuthadi was a memorable experience and values all the compliments that K Balachander had given her after watching the film.
Ontari with Gopichand is her first telugu film and it is successfully heading towards 100 days. Bhavana adds that her role was offbeat and doesn’t regret playing a role that doesn’t last. “I had difficulty mugging those long dialogues but now by the end of the completion of the film I had become quite comfy. I have even signed my second film with Nitin.”
Most of the time is spent at home and she loves listening to music or sending umpteen SMSs to her friends. Of late the actress has taken to her pet passion…learning violin. A master comes home to train her and she is into it completely. She adds, “I’ve been wanting to learn veena and violin ever since I was in school but it didn’t happen. There is a particular way you ought to hold violin and my hands ache, but I guess will get used to it.”
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/05/21/stories/2008052150360100.htm
