Chennai: A time was allotted for an interview over the telephone and Karthika joined us after setting aside her Information, Systems and Organisation textbook. After all, it is exam season at the Nair household and her younger sister and actress, Thulasi too, will head back home soon for her exams after completing shoots. A self-confessed nerd right from class one, Karthika says she had set her ambitions on pursuing hotel management to follow in her father’s footsteps when a film offer came knocking when she was in Class 10.
She says, “It all changed in a week. I was in Mumbai, just getting done with my Class 10 board exams and the director of my first film, Josh, came over and narrated a script. Till then I’d not given cinema much thought. You’d think cinema was discussed often at home considering how we’re Radha’s kids, but to be honest, we didn’t even know mom was an actress for a very long time. My mom didn’t want us to get distracted from our studies and so she kept cinema off the table. It was only when we made trips to Chennai that we realised who our mom really was and understood her stardom.”
Thinking how shooting for a movie would be fun, especially since it was summer vacation time, Karthika soon realised that acting was no walk in the park. “In my naïveté, I thought acting would be a great break after my boards. I have never studied so hard in my life. On the sets, I was to play a chatterbox and the director handed me a five-page dialogue sheet written entirely in Telugu! I have nightmares thinking about it now, but Telugu has become my strongest of all the southern languages and it’s all thanks to those nights I sat up mugging my lines,” she laughs.
Since then, she has acted in all four south Indian languages and admits she has much to learn in her chosen trade. She says, “Right from the start, my mom’s support has been invaluable. She used to listen in on scripts with me, but never interfered. She would leave the decision to me and she would also wait for me on the sets right from the first day of shoot to the last. One thing she mentioned has become gospel truth to me. She said, ‘You may be my daughter, but on the sets you’re totally the director’s child’. That’s all the film school education I’ve needed.”
Yet as a resident of Mumbai, she insists she lives a double life between the south and home. While she’s a star here, her life revolves around books, studies and her family there. “My friends didn’t know much about south Indian films and dismissed them, saying they were all highly melodramatic and unreal. But when I showed them a few clips from Josh and then songs from Ko, especially the one we shot in Norway, they were thrilled. But this does allow me to just be myself without any fuss.”
Coming from a home with three heroines and her aunt Ambika making it four, do dinner sessions ignite tantrums? “Not at all,” laughs Karthika. “We’re a peaceful bunch actually and we’ve been brought together much more due to how rare it has become to get all of us together at the same time. All of us are usually in different parts of the world at a point of time and so when we get together, it’s always a blast. As a family, we’ve toured the entire world except Africa.”
Yet in between shoots, she makes up for missing college by living vicariously through her younger brother and sister. “My brother’s in Aurangabad and my sister keeps travelling with her shoots, but I keep talking to them and ask them about school, college and all the gossip in their lives. You might not believe it, but I know everyone and everything that goes on with them. Their lives are so much more exciting than mine,” she shrugs.
She has also picked up the habit of watching several films a day, that too films exclusively in theatres — a trait she inherited from her aunt Ambika. She confesses she’s a foodie and it’s due to her metabolism that she does not put on weight. “I love all kinds of food and based on each place, I have a set of favourites which I just can’t give up. Also cupcakes, especially red velvet, are my kryptonite. They can be used to win over any argument against me. But alas, I’m a bad cook. I’ve always been quite lazy when it comes to cooking, but I do honestly make the most awesome Maggi,” she laughs.
Looking forward, Karthika’s double life presents her with two varied events to look forward to. In cinema, she’s awaiting the release of her film, Vaa Deal, which she calls one of her most exciting films as it stays true to the real roots of Tamil cinema. She is also working in an untitled Telugu film with Naresh and the much-anticipated multi-starrer, Purampokku. “In Purampokku, I’m not just a heroine, but a hero as well. I will be performing a lot of stunts for the film as it’s a very bold character. I’m honestly lucky to have got the roles I have,” she says.
On a more personal note, she is looking forward to her graduation. “I’ve been dreaming for the longest time of wearing that black gown and tossing my hat up. That’s going to my big day and it’s something I’ve truly been looking forward to all my life!” she says sounding like the nerd she says she is, getting back to her textbook.
