An accidental actor

Durga Krishna was determined that she’d not act. When the first acting opportunity came knocking at her door at age 16, she said no without a second thought. Destiny had it that the girl who only dreamed of becoming a dancer lands up in tinsel town. Now, a few years later, she sits, fingers crossed as her debut movie Vimaanam moves closer to the date of release. She heard only one name to say ‘yes’ — Prithviraj.

“The offer came on the day I was winding up a six-day pilgrimage to Mookambika. On my way back home, a call came mid-way. Some casting director, I don’t know who, had popped my name to the director and I was in. I was chosen as Miss Beautiful Face in the Miss Malabar Beauty Pageant before that,” rewinds Durga. 

Throughout this conversation, Durga repeats she is a dancer first and everything else is secondary and that the rest came unplanned at unexpected times.

Her stint with modelling too has a backstory, an incident which could otherwise prove dreadful for any aspiring artiste. “An accident broke my leg. In the initial days, standing on my foot for two minutes was not possible. The doctors pronounced I’d not dance for the rest of my life. Being a dancer, I was confident I would. The nine-month recuperation period made me think of giving modelling a try,” she says.

The girl, on her way from Mookambika to Kozhikode, changed her destination to Kochi, where Durga had the first round of discussions for the film. She was all excited and waited for the day she’d be with Prithviraj before the camera.

“The image of actor Prithviraj among the people I know was as one who had too much pride. I soon realised he was nothing of that sort. He was the first to break the ice. If I couldn’t okay a shot in one attempt, I’d look at chettan and he’d be like ‘Take it cool, we’ll go for one more.’ He knows when to crack jokes and how to be a good companion to fellow actors. I, who, adored him as a good actor, finally ended up being a hardcore fan of his,” says Durga.

Though her maiden movie is yet to hit the screens, Durga is flooded with offers from Malayalam and Tamil. “Good scripts are coming. Let me see first how I do on the screen. Then I’ll decide the rest,” she says.