Shriya Saran paints for Vizag

Shriya Saran is a busy girl these days. Besides the shoot for the Pawan Kalyan-Venkatesh starrer Gopala Gopala, the actress has been actively involved in several charity shows and has also been rediscovering an old passion painting. Her interest in art was reignited when she was invited to be a part of an art show that was raising money for rebuilding Vizag post Hudhud.

Although she has been painting since her school days, the two canvases that she will be donating for The November 9 show are new ones that she worked on over the last couple of weeks in Mumbai. One is a portrait of Krishna immersed in nature while the other is Buddha.

“When I got a call for the show, I immediately accepted because I wanted to be a part of any kind of help for Vizag,” says the actress, adding, “Visakha-patnam has a lot of memories for me. I shot my first film in Araku. I also have a cousin who is stationed there in the Navy, who has been telling me scary stories of the devastation,” says Shriya.

The actress also recently performed at a event for Kashmir relief. But these causes are more than just good PR or image building exercises for the actress.

As a child growing up in Haridwar and Dehradun, natural disasters were common. “Besides the fact that as a family we would help out every time there were landslides or floods in the region, we once had a narrow escape during an earthquake. We were in Badrinath just hours before a quake hit. We were right at its epicenter. We realised what we had just escaped. That was a wake up call,” she says.