ADITI CHENGAPPA

When Aditi Chengappa was getting ready to attend actress Bhumika Chawla and yoga guru Bharat Thakur’s wedding, she had no clue the day would always remain as special to her as it would to the newlyweds. While most eyes were on the bride and groom, one of the guests, debutant director Srihari Nanu, did a doubletake when he saw Aditi and realised he found his Nandini, for the film Thakita Thakita.

“I never explored the option of doing movies till then,” says the actress, who was nurturing the dream of coming up with a “Norah Jonesy jazz album.” Aditi might not have given movies a serious thought before this, but looking at her love for the performing arts (she plays the guitar, piano, writes poetry and is a trained classical singer), it seems like acting would always be the next art she would want to master.

But acting couldn’t have come easy as she has no formal training in this art and nor does she speak Telugu. “I used to do a daily yoga show with my mother calledSweat on NDTV, so I had camera exposure and this show took away my camera shyness,” she says but admits it can be a little stressful. “When you are in front of the mirror you can do all kinds of things. Without it though, you don’t know how you look. You have to pay a lot of attention. I would keep thinking, ‘Hope am not smiling too much..., not showing too much teeth..., looking glamorous...’,” says Aditi explaining that you need to have perfect command over your face, expressions and know how you will appear without having a mirror to check out your actions.

Being a perfectionist sure helps because she put her flair for languages to good use, mastered Telugu and did her own dubbing for this movie. Her hard work paid off; she got the joy of seeing herself on this huge 70mm screen. “It was initially a bit odd towatch myself, but then it is a dream come true. I had tears in my eyes when I first saw the film. I was happy for not just me, but the entire cast as this was our two years of hard work.”

The six-month workshop where the entire cast and crew got together before shooting to bond over acting, yoga and Telugu helped immensely. “I got to bond really well with the cast. Nagarjuna sir was so sweet, after doing a scene together, I wanted apicture with him. As we sat on the bench, he asked me if he was smelling of kerosene, as he had a bit of wet paint on his sleeve which was removed with kerosene. I started laughing and we got a really good picture together.”

It also helped that she knew the film’s producers Bharat Thakur and Bhumika well, “You hear all kinds of things about the movie industry, but I felt safe, protected and happy.”

She has taken a shine to Hyderabad too; confides that she love it more than her birthplace Bengaluru as it’s “A less traffic, cooler version of the city.” Aditi plans to spend more time here and do more movies.

What about Bollywood? “For many people this is their stepping stone to Bollywood, but for me Tollywood is very cool too. I am happy with whatever comes my way.”

Aditi has found her calling in movies, but didn’t media and journalism ever tempt her as she is an English Honours student from Lady Sriram College, Delhi and dad Raj Chengappa is a very well-known journalist. “Lots of people ask me that. I love writing, but not reporting.” Guess she is destined to be reported about.