Arthi walks beyond the ramp

There is a lot of hype surrounding acclaimed director Bejoy Nambiar’s Tamil-Malayalam bilingual Solo with Dulquer Salmaan, in what will be his return to Kollywood, three years after the Hindi-Tamil bilingual David (that starred Vikram and Jiiva).

Speaking to DC, Bejoy reveals that Solo will be shot across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, and even Ladakh! “It’s not an adventure-road trip movie as has been touted — not at all, though we are shooting across different locations. I can’t reveal much about the plot for now, except that there are five heroines in the project.”

One of them has been confirmed! It’s none other than popular city-based model Arthi Venkatesh, who will make her long-awaited acting debut with this venture.
“I have no idea why I turned down so many films down the years. Looking back, I have even said no to the likes of Mani Ratnam and Shanoo Sharma, when I was quite young, without knowing the films I’d been approached for. But when Bejoy called me a few months ago, I decided to finally give it a shot. We immediately hit it off, and Bejoy even got someone to train me in acting for three days. But as luck would have it, it ended up just being a casting call and the project didn’t take off. I didn’t think much of it. Then, a few days back, Bejoy got in touch about Solo — and I agreed! I’m a huge fan of Dulquer’s work and was thrilled to be debuting into cinema with him,” says an excited Arthi.

Having modeled internationally (including New York Fashion Week), as well as having acted in short films, feature films were but a natural progression for Arthi — and the ravishing Chennai girl is now looking forward to her new journey. “We just finished a schedule of Solo in Kerala, and it was such an adventurous experience! Bejoy is a perfectionist, so I learnt the ropes well. Now, I’m ready to enter films full-fledged, and I hope good things are to come. My favourite actors? Ranveer Singh and Mahesh Babu! I’d be delighted to share screen space with them soon,” she grins.