My parents advised me not to copy anyone: Shivatmika

Rajasekhar and Jeevitha’s elder daughter Shivani was supposed to make her film debut first, but instead Shivatmika, their younger daughter, would be seen first onscreen as her debut film, Dorasani, releases this Friday. “This was a big surprise for me. My sister and I have both dreamt of becoming actresses, but her film is still going on with its shoot,” says Shivatmika.

Shivatmika reveals how director Madhura Sridhar, who is a friend of the family, had approached them with the story of the period drama. Once the family liked the story, Shivatmika auditioned for a screen test. “Since I’ve been on the sets regularly with my parents from my childhood, I imagined that I could pull it off easily. But I was frozen on the first day, but later I grew in confidence,” she says.

As for the role she portrayed in the movie, Shivatmika says, “I am a big fan of filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Just like how he portrays actresses in his films, I was portrayed in a similar way. I was required to mostly express with my eyes, whether it was anger, love or any other emotion.”  However, along the shoot, Shivatmika says people began comparing her with her mother Jeevitha. “I may have unknowingly started imitating her style of acting too. But thanks to my parents’ constant advice to both my sister and me not to copy anyone’s acting style, I began following my own style,” recounts Shivatmika, who adds that she looked at her mother’s pictures and took the reference for the jewels her mother wore 18 years back.

With regard to her co-star Anand Deverakonda, Shivatmika is in admiration of his performance in the film. “Anand is a performer. In fact, when we first met, we didn’t know that he is Vijay Deverakonda’s brother. We knew about it only much later,” she states adding that she wanted to do good films and roles that relate to her age.