Keerthy Suresh who was last seen in the comedy Revolver Rita, has not had much critical or commercial success during the last few years. She is now looking for a role that would give her the same performing proclivity as Mahanati in 2018 in which she played the iconic Tamil-Telugu actress Savitri.
As Mahanati turns eight years old , Keerthy in an exclusive conversation with this writer recalls her trepidation at tackling such a complex role so early in her career. “Of course, I had that fear in me. But I knew that I was not doing it like I would any other character. So, I had this feeling that there is a difference in what I have done before and what I am doing now. I used to have a lot of doubts.”
She recalls how the director boosted her confidence. “Nagi (Nag Ashwin) was very confident when it came to takes. He knew the subject much better than all of us. When he guides and then you see it on the monitor after the shot, you feel, ‘Okay, maybe this is correct’. During the first few days, Nagi would come and explain the scene to me.”
Keerthy regards Mahanati as a transformative experience. “I had to get reference pictures because Savitri Garu used to look different in all her films. If you see her lips, her eyebrows, it’s not the same in every movie. She used to change according to her characters. So even we had different kinds of looks. So everyday, I used to ask him which look we were doing on that particular day.”
Mahanati won Keerthy a National award for best actress.
