Amyra Dastur, all of 25, has worked in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu in the last few years. Having begun her career as a model and starring in many advertisements, she went on to debut in the Hindi film Issaq (2013), an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet. Post that, she starred in Tamil, Telugu, and an Indo-China productions.
In a brief chat with Silverscreen, Amyra tells us about prepping for her next role, an intense one that has her sporting a different look, and what role she’d love to play some day.
Excerpts from the interview:
Your look in Rajma Chawal is being talked about a lot. The barcode tattoo, your hairdo – what was going through your mind when you were briefed about the look?
I was really excited because I do like to experiment as an actor. And I feel like I have to transform in front of the camera and you don’t want to be get into those particular characterised roles. That, for me, was quite interesting. The thought went into it once we did it, because I got a lot of stares so I knew it was something different.
Tell us about preparing for the role
This is a proper North Indian, cultural kind of girl. My character is from North India, she has lived there all her life. The film is entirely based in Delhi. So being a girl from South Bombay, I had to go through literally two proper workshops and nearly a month of getting the Hindi diction right to get the dialogues and everything. That way, it was quite an experience.
Your Telugu film Raju Gadu is completely different from Rajma Chawal, and you were shooting simultaneously. How did you switch from one role to the other?
I was lucky enough because we finished the principle shoot of Raju Gadu except for two songs. Luckily, I had to only memorise the lyrics of the songs and it was more of a dancing kind of fun trip, because I went straight to silent from Delhi. It got easier when it came to the songs because there were no dialogues, but my hair had to be covered and we had to make sure the look didn’t change from the film itself. So that was quite a task.
You’ve starred in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi films, and even an English-Mandarin one called Kung Fu Yoga. Was this always part of the plan?
Honestly, it just happened. There was not much thought that went into it or plans to go from Hindi to Tamil to Telugu, or the Indo-China production. I guess I like to go with the flow. For me, it was always about the story. The things that I’m going to work on soon is all about the story and always will be. With that, I try to see what I can do with it.
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Speaking about roles, do you have any in mind that you would like to play some day?
I really want to do a period drama. For lack of a better example, something like Padmaavat. A proper period drama that has something to do with our culture, our history all that.
Future projects?
I have a Tamil project that I have been working on since February with Adhik Ravichandran and we are going to begin shooting in June. So you’ll see me in a Tamil film, then there’s the Telugu film coming out (Raju Gadu) and then there’s Rajma Chawal. I have one more announcement which I’ll make at the end of May, so it’s getting really exciting.