Finding her voice

Mahesh and Namrata’s seven-year-old daughter Sitara was the centre of attraction at the Frozen 2 Telugu film event. The little girl has lent her voice for baby Elsa in this animation film, which releases in on November 22.

While we wondered if this was a calculated move by the parents, Namrata refutes it. “There is no strategy behind Sitara’s entry into films with this dubbing. She’s loved Elsa since she was three-year-old. So when this opportunity came along, it was like a dream come to true for her. And Mahesh and I happily agreed to it, too,” explains Namrata.

Despite Namrata’s joy for her daughter, Sitara wasn’t trained in her dubbing by her. “Sitara’s dance and acting teacher Aruna Bikshnu assisted her in the process. Baby Elsa’s part is very small in the film and is a part of a flashback, although it sets the base for the film. But it was not difficult for Sitara to render the Telugu dialogues as she speaks very good Telugu,” says the former Miss World.

Star alert
But it appears Sitara, quite like her father Mahesh Babu, gives only two or three-word answers. When asked about how she enjoyed the whole process, she replied, “It was fun and I like dubbing. It’s fun.”

And when asked if she told her friends that she’s dubbing for baby Elsa, she said simply, “Yes. I am sure they would want to watch it.”

What was her father’s reaction when he knew she was dubbing for baby Elsa, we persist with her, in the hope of getting more than a couple of sentences in reply. “He was kind of surprised when I told him,” answers the adorable kid.

So, does she plan to watch the film with her father, we ask. “I hope so and I am not sure,” she replies. We then ask the young lady about her YouTube channel. “My friends and I wanted to spend a lot of time together, so we thought of starting a channel, and that’s how it happened.”

So does Sitara have anything similar to Elsa, we decide to ask Sitara’s mum. “Lots, in fact. Elsa is a strong character, who is loving and determined. And Sitara has pretty much all those qualities in her too. She is a loving sister to her brother and she’s very strong, and once she decides something, her mind is made up,” says Namrata.

Finding senior Elsa
Nithya Menen, who lent voice for senior Elsa in the movie, also says that she connected deeply with Elsa. “I watched Frozen when one of my friends asked me to watch it. And when they approached me to do Frozen 2, I thought it was perfect and I had to do the dubbing for Elsa,” says Nithya Menen.

Nithya also thinks she shares some similarities with the character of Elsa. “I felt that she was also unable to handle certain things that she could and she had to learn how to do them. I connected especially to that about Elsa,” says Nithya Menen, adding that it was her honour to do this film.