Although she holds a predominant place in South Indian Cinema, she is not very new to Bollywood. Earlier this year, audiences saw Priyamani in a small but significant role in Mani Ratnam’s Raavan. Though the movie fizzled without much of a mark, her act was noticed despite sharing space with the likes of Vikram, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The national award winner (for her tamil film Paruthiveeran) has a bag full of releases over the next few months spread across the dialects of Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
After Raavan, she was skeptical about moving to Mumbai and said in an interview that she wasn’t sure about doing more films in Bollywood. But a phone call from Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) changed that perspective. Elaborating on how it worked out, she said that RGV considered her for a role after seeing Paruthiveeran. When he tried to reach her, she was shooting for Puri Jagganath’s Golimaar in Langkawi. Fortunately, RGV and Puri were good friends. Words were exchanged, dates were shuffled and Priyamani became part of RGV’s project.
That project was Rakht Charitra-2, and once again, Priyamani had a small role in a movie with well-known leading stars, yet she had no qualms about it. For her, more than the reels dedicated to her, it was an important honor to work with Mani Ratnam and RGV, she asserted. She is one of the few southern imports who has dubbed for herself in all three versions of the film – Tamil, Telugu & Hindi. She admits being comfortable with Hindi, thanking her school teachers for their efforts in teaching her.
She plays the role of Surya’s wife Bhavani, who stands strong in favour of her husband’s decisions and supports him unconditionally. Now the news is that she is being offered Bollywood commercial entertainers. Though moving to Mumbai isn’t an idea she is considering, she is open to Bollywood and is currently basking in the rave praises for her
latest film.
Here’s something that many may not know – Priyamani is Vidya Balan’s cousin.
