New kid on the block

She has so many feathers in her cap — from being a national-level gymnast and singer, to becoming a theatre artist and an actor! 23-year-old Madurai girl Maya S. Krishnan, who wanted to make it big in films, is thrilled about her upcoming film with Rajinikanth. “I consider this as a life-time opportunity and feel very lucky to be a part of this magnum opus. Like many other Rajini sir fans, I too, was in awe of him while filming. A very down-to-earth and warm person, he helped me to improvise my character and encouraged me a lot,” she starts.

Maya debuted in Tamil with the musical Vaanavil Vaazhkai directed by James Vasanthan. Though a creative person, Maya completed her engineering degree from Bengaluru and later shifted her bag and baggage to Chennai one-and-a-half-years ago. “I knew that the IT field was not my cup of tea. But since I started the course, I wanted to complete it and move on to theatre and then films,” she says.

“Though I was not involved in any theatre during my college, I was always passionate about it. Later, when I joined Jayakumar from Koothupattarai, I realised that theatre is an addictive profession, if you love it whole-heartedly! It was actually director Radha Mohan who introduced me to Jayakumar sir. Both of them are my mentors and strong pillars of support,” Maya says proudly.

The young girl believes that nothing will stop a person from achieving their dream. “To be frank, I didn’t know how to take my passion ahead. But since I met the right people at the right time, everything fell in place! I always wanted to be a part of theatre. Having said that, I love to act in films also — it needn’t be a heroine role; I’m game for good character roles also,” she says with a grin. A national-level gymnast, Maya was trained under Mr. Raju at TVS School, Madurai. The young actor has also done two short films — one with Chaaru Haasan and other with Livingston. Maya, who sports a pixie hair-cut, chopped her long hair for her first film. “I don’t mind challenging myself,” she sums up. Hope we can see this vibrant girl  making her own mark in the industry soon!