Mumbai: After playing a series of supporting roles in movies like Manam, Heart Attack and SVSC, Tejaswi Madivada enters the big league with Ram Gopal Varma’s Ice Cream, a horror flick where she plays the lead. Talking abo-ut how she bagged the role, Tejaswi says, “Ram Gopal Varma saw my pictures and called me for a meeting. He signed me on to play Vishnu Manchu’s wife in one of his movies. He did not give me dialogues, instead he asked, ‘What will you do if you were Vishnu’s wife and this is the scene?’ He explained the scene and I gave my inputs.”
“I did not get a call from him for the next two days and had given up hope. He called me on the third day and said that I look good on reel and he was really impressed by my acting. I went to meet him again and he explained about Ice Cream. And that’s how I bagged the role,” she says, adding, “I grew up watching his movies and a chance to work with him was a dream come true.”
Tejaswi adds that RGV had tried to make Ice Cream as real as it could get. “He did not give us any dialogues. He would just give us a scene and ask us, what dialogues would we say in such a situation? We would then decide and alter the dialogues on the spot and shoot the scene. Navdeep (the lead actor) was very spontaneous with the dialogues and working with him was a wonderful experience.”
Having worked with directors like Puri Jagannadh and others, Tejaswi finds working with RGV a very different experience. She says, “He is like a living encyclopedia. Ask him anything and he would have an answer. Moreover, during the shoot he did not let me apply any make-up! He wanted me to be the way I would be at home. So the whole movie has turned out to be very natural.” She adds, “He knows how to get the best from his actors. He doesn’t even give too many breaks between shoots.” Even before the release of her first movie as the lead, Tejaswi has her bag full. Besides Maruthi’s Lovers, she has four movies lined up for release this year.
