It doesn't hurt to be appreciative: Krithi Shetty

We’re familiar with Krithi Shetty as the girl-next-door or as a glamour girl, but she says her comic talent is what we should watch out for in her upcoming film Custody.

“I play Revathi, a girl who has an amazing sense of comic timing. Whenever the protagonist (Naga Chaitanya) gets serious I provide comic relief,” she smiles, talking about her role in the Venkat Prabhu directorial.

The film is a realistic action drama, and very different from the genres she has done so far, says the actress. “I have earlier done roles with romantic shades, but getting to do comedy is a different experience,” she shares, noting that a lot depends on the writing and dialogue delivery in the context of comedy.

Revealing that continuity of scenes was the biggest challenge she faced in the film, Krithi says she needed to put on two or three layers of tan make-up to look darker for Custody, but since she was shooting for two other films simultaneously, she sometimes forgot to use the tan make-up, and she and her team would realise the oversight later.

The need to look darker also made it more difficult to shoot the underwater sequence needed for the film, the actress says. More layers of tan had to be applied, to protect against the make-up coming off in the water.  “Also, we had to check the make-up every five minutes,” she shares, adding, “it was tough.”

Krithi started her Tollywood career with Uppena (2021), which was a blockbuster. She says she’s getting to know the industry better now. Before she started her career, she was free with her criticism of actors. “But after coming into the industry I have realised the amount of hard work scores of people put in to make a film. I feel it doesn’t hurt to be nice and appreciate something,” she says, and adds, “Criticism should be constructive.”

Pointing out that actors put in the same effort for all films and give their 100 per cent, she says a film could fail for several reasons. “My heart knows that I gave my 100 percent and that gives me a sense of satisfaction. But I see what went wrong in a film and try not to repeat those mistakes and make better choices going forward,” she says.

But how does she feel when actresses are blamed for a film’s failure?  “I don’t know how much responsibility actresses should take for a film’s failure, because filmmaking is a collaborative team effort,” she replies. “And, whether or not I play the role, the film will be made.”

In conclusion, Krithi says, “In this industry, everyone puts in a lot of hard work but there’s no tried-and-tested recipe for success. We can never be sure of anything.”