Pukka-hauntess of the screen

She was just a teen when she made her foray into Kannada cinema with Nanda Loves Nanditha. And now, she’s setting the screen on fire with her feisty performance in the recently-released Telugu flick Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada. Having played a woman who is possessed by a ghost in the movie, Bengaluru hudugi Nandita Shwetha has garnered high praise for her acting. Talking to us in between her packed schedule, Nandita says, “My Kannada movie was a hit and my first four Tamil movies were successes too. So this feels like a hat-trick. I’m elated that people in the industry are calling me a lucky mascot. It’s not easy to get a good first movie. There’s a lot of struggle and waiting involved in my story. My instinct propelled me to choose this project.” Thanks to her scary role, Nandita quips that people who talk to her are now a little fearful when doing so! “They express shock when they see me in person and say I’m such a small girl and ask me how I managed to pull off such a powerful character,” she says.

Among all the praise that Nandita was showered upon, Tollywood superstar Allu Arjun’s phone call has left her in high spirits. “He told me that I was the soul of the movie. It really is very humbling to receive praise from such a big actor,” she says.

As she reminisces about her tryst with films, Nandita reveals that her journey into the field was unexpected. “The director approached me and said they wanted an innocent-looking girl. Finally, my parents got convinced and I did the Kannada film. After that, I took two years to groom myself and decided to come back to films.” In an industry where heroines are mostly eye-candy and hardly have a meaty role, Nandita is particular about doing unusual and performance-oriented roles. “I like it when people call me a ‘performer’,” she says. Now that she’s being offered a number of films, she confesses that she’s confused about her next choice. “I did get a lot of offers from Sandalwood as well. But since I was busy with Tamil and Telugu films, I couldn’t give time to Kannada cinema. If I’m offered a role which I like, I’d be more than happy to do it. The feeling of delivering a dialogue in your mother tongue is something else,” says the actress, who’d love to work with Sudeep, Darshan and Puneeth Rajkumar.

Coming to her personal life, Nandita reveals that her mother, who accompanies her on shoots, is a homemaker. She adds, “My dad takes care of our land in the village. As for my brothers, they’re still studying. I also have three dogs that I absolutely love — playing with them is such a stress-buster.” Calling herself a pukka south Bengalurean, Nandita loves savouring masala puri in the ooru. “I hangout with my friends at Chaat Street and relish the food there,” she reveals.