I compete only with my heroes: Regina Cassandra

Regina, the happening girl in Tollywood, is back to Tamil — where she started with the thriller movie Maanagaram. She now has her kitty full with half a dozen K’town flicks. The actress speaks about her intriguing role in the movie, working with Selvaraghavan in Nenjam Marappadhillai, the casting couch in the industry, and why she believes only in love marriage, among others.

On Maanagaram, she says, “It has a beautiful script by debutant director Logesh and I essay a girl who works in the HR department. Sundeep and Shree are the male leads. Each character has a role to play in the film. More than the character I portray, how much I can contribute to the film, is important for me.”

She often opt for scripts where she ends up romancing a bad boy. She comments, “In real life, everyone has pluses and minuses. Films reflect real life only. I wouldn’t say that I always go in for such roles. If a filmmaker feels that I am apt for it, I am approached.”

Talking about her role in Selvaraghavan’s Nenjam Marappadhi-lai, where she is reported to be playing a possessed woman, she exclaims, “Oh, not really! I essay Mariam, an orphan who is in search of a job. She does not think of marriage. For her, everything is Jesus. She gets a job of a nanny to look after a child and what happens thereon, forms the crux. I am not playing the wife of SJ Suryah, though.”

Sharing her experiences working with Selva, the Rajathanthiram girl says, “It was an enriching experience to work with him. He would brief me before every shot. In one particular scene, I repeated the same dialogue in 108 places shot inside a house! It took an hour for us to complete it, although it may appear on screen for 15 seconds.”

She rules out the notion that Selva is a tough taskmaster — “I wouldn’t agree. Given a chance, I would gladly go on board for yet another movie under his direction. See, he is a perfectionist. I never had any problem with him on the sets. He never shouts, but he will not leave you unless he gets exactly what he has envisioned!”

Talking about multi-starrers, she feels that’s not an issue at all, “Yes, there are four heroines including me — Pranitha, Aishwarya and Aditi, in Atharva’s film, Gemini Ganesanum Suruli Rajanum. I don’t need to compete with the heroines. I only compete with my heroes on performing better in combination scenes.”

She gets excited talking about her bilingual period flick Madai Thirandhu, in Tamil and 1945 in Telugu. “It is a historic film and I am sharing screen space with Rana Daggubati. The film depicts Subhas Chandra Bose’s independence movement and I play a proper Tamil Chettiar girl. My stylist and I went through lot of references for my looks, body language, how the women in Chettiar families drape their sarees, their food habits, hairstyles, etc. I am looking forward to it.”
Saravanan Irukka Bayamaen with Udhayanidhi is yet another movie which she says she had a blast shooting. “I play a dual dimensional role in it and had fun shooting throughout in Karaikal.”

She asserts that number games do not really matter for her. “I can’t speak about the future. I work hard, and put in the best of efforts, and hope for the best.”
As we probe her on the remark about adjustments in the cinema industry that she made while talking about Varalaxmi’s statement on sexual harassment, she explains, “It was just one of my earlier experiences. Seven years ago, while I was working on a Telugu movie, someone called to say that there was an opportunity to work in Tamil. But to get the chance, some ‘adjustments’ had to be made! I did not even know who called and what he was talking about — some vague thing!

All the same, I believe in women empowerment and during crisis, women should know how to defend themselves,” she adds. Regina signs off, adding that she’d prefer a love marriage and does not believe in arranged marriages... watch this space!