Another debut Down South

Punjabi girl Mehreen is the latest actress from the North to make her debut in Tollywood. She will be seen in Krishna Gadi Veera Prema Gadha opposite Nani.

The Delhi girl, who has studied in New York and Canada, says, “When I shifted from New York to Canada for my studies there was a big gap for holidays. At that time I decided to enrol for a beauty pageant. I was crowned Miss Personality in that pageant and after that I got a lot of offers from the fashion world, and then I shifted to Mumbai.”

Director Hanu Raghavapudi was looking for a female lead for his upcoming film at this time and the makers approached Mehreen for an audition.

“It was not just a photoshoot but a proper audition as the director wanted me to deliver the dialogues in Telugu. They liked it and I was chosen,” says the actress.

“I am playing Mahalakshmi in the film, who is from Anantapur. Before shooting, I would write the dialogues in English and then got a translator to give me the meanings in Hindi. I worked hard for this character,” she says, adding that most of the shooting took place in and around Anantapur.

“After shoots I would stay back with the unit at Anantapur as I really wanted to get into the character. The Rayalaseema slang is also different and I even want to dub for my character,” says the actress.

Why Tollywood? Why not Hindi films? “These days there is not much difference between Telugu and Hindi or any other film industry. There are many talented people here and they are also professionals. I have never planned my career and I was taking it as it came; so when the Telugu offer came I accepted it,” she says.

Talking about her co-star Nani, she says, “He is always helpful and would correct my language. He also helped when I struggled a bit while shooting.”

With the film releasing on February 12, is she nervous? “No, I am not nervous, I am excited. I really worked hard and I want to see how the audience receives my performance,” says the actress.

Mehreen adds that she has a couple of projects in the pipeline. “I will announce them after this film releases. There is also talks of a Hindi film,” she adds.