She made a Lovely debut in Telugu and soon started to haunt the Kannada audience with a pretty scary venture in Chandralekha. Soon she made it to the top as one of the most popular actress in Sandalwood with both impressive performances and star studded projects in her kitty. Actress Shanvi Srivastava, who previously bagged the best actress award from critics for her Masterpiece act, has this time bagged her first ‘Best Actress’ award for her emotional act in Tarak at the recently held South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA)- 2018 in Dubai.
The actress who has several interesting projects lined up including Avane Sriman Narayana opposite Rakshit Shetty, a multi-starrer titled Ravichandra alongside Crazy Star Ravichandran and Real Star Upendra including a couple of probable ones opposite Action Prince Dhruva Sarja, speaks to Bengaluru Chronicle about her tear jerking award winning act, and much more apart from horse riding lessons.
The movie Tarak which earned her the Best Actress award is directed by Prakash, starring Challenging Star Darshan, Shruthi Hariharan, and Dynamic Hero Devaraj in a special role. While referring to her character Meera’s role, she shares, “This one is closest to my heart and to my people (her fans, family and admirers). It was an emotional roller coaster. Most of all, it made me realise how much my family, my people my audiences love me. This one gave me the respect I was craving for, for years. Further, it gave me a new birth as an actor.”
She says that she could pull it off because of the entire team of Tarak who trusted in her ability to perform such an emotionally charged character.
Shanvi, who has so far acted in more than half a dozen successful projects in Kannada feels that she had never expected an award nor even a nomination for her other projects but Tarak was the one which she hoped to make it to the list of nominees.
“I honestly feel that I had not come up with any award winning performances. As an actor or a performer I was not satisfied. I had always given my best doing justice to the character, but nothing brilliant to win an award even for Tarak which I thought that I may get nominated. I couldn’t have asked for more as such recognition gives an artiste the much needed push to do better,” says Shanvi Srivastava.
“I realised acting is not just about looking pretty and wearing amazing clothes. It has much more to it many characters, many lives and many deaths in a single life. It’s all about creative satisfaction going beyond oneself. It’s deep, beautiful and it’s love,” she explains.
Whereas, she is currently busy with two big projects Avane Sriman Narayana, starring alongside Rakshit Shetty, to which she still has some major portions of shooting to be done. “It’s set in the 80s, and I play a simple but an intelligent girl who is almost like a journalist. There is more to the character and the twist to it will certainly surprise the audience,” she adds.
Insofar as director Om Prakash Rao’s remake venture Ravichandra, a multi starter involving Ravichandran and Upendra, she is paired opposite the real star.
She also has Akhil, which marks the debut of Suraj Kumar, who is closely related to the family of Kannada thespian late Dr. Rajkumar. Apart from it the makers of Pogaru starring Action Prince Dhruva Sarja have approached the actress for one of the two female lead roles, but Shanvi says it is yet to be confirmed and as well as another untitled venture involving Dhruva Sarja.
“My mother is very happy with the award and she has been boasting about it with everyone in the family especially my sister Vidisha Srivastava (also an actress) who cried watching the movie while expressing her admiration for me,” she smiles.
While riding high on her success, she is these days learning to ride something else too! She wraps up saying, “During the photoshoot on a horse, I felt scared and uncomfortable. It is when I decided to learn horse riding. I am doing it in Bengaluru in between breaks from movies. Now, nothing beats the horse for me when it comes to modern day rides.”
