For years now, Aditi Rao Hydari’s Hyderabadi connection has been a topic of discussion. Whenever she lands in the city, she’s bombarded with questions regarding her royal lineage and “childhood memories.” Though she’s gracious enough to field the questions, she has also mentioned often that she’d love to form stronger ties with the city. It looks like the actress is doing just that with not one but two Telugu films in the pipeline.
It’s interesting how despite having been around for so long, it is only now that she is making her debut in a Telugu film. With Kaatru Veliyidai and now Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, she has already ventured into Tamil films.
“For me it’s important to work with directors who have something interesting up their sleeves. I don’t want to talk about what I didn’t do in the past as it won’t make sense anyway, but would like to talk about the things that I am doing now. And Sammohanam, as the title suggests, has been a magical and enchanting journey for me,” Aditi tells Silverscreen.
While she’s all gung-ho about the film, there was a time when there was an uncertainty whether she will be a part of the film or not. “At one point I was really disappointed because I wasn’t able to work out the dates for the film and felt that I wouldn’t be able to be a part of the beautiful film. But I was determined to do it and somehow managed. Thankfully, Mohan sir (the film’s director Mohana Krishna Indraganti) too shifted things around a little for me and I am quite glad things worked out well,” she says.
The promos reveal that Aditi plays an actress in the film. Talking about the film, she says, “This film is special to me because it is closer to home, I don’t mean that it is a Telugu film or has any kind of Hyderabad connect. I am talking about the world of cinema that is portrayed in the film. And playing an actress was quite a fun experience.” She adds, “But the most appealing thing about the film was how my character Sameera is portrayed as this regular girl. People often ask me how am I so normal. But I believe there are many layers to one’s personality. Yes, I get a lot of love. People compliment me. Okay, I maybe a star, but at home, I am a regular girl. My family treats me the same way. I get yelled at if I don’t eat on time. People tend to dehumanize actors probably because they are in the public domain, but this film shows that actors are real people just like everyone else.”
As an afterthought she adds, “Mohan sir has written the script keeping in focus this girl and who she is and I really wanted to play this character the moment I heard it. There’s so much truth that has been spoken throughout the film that it was very exciting to play the character.”
Apart from doing a film in a new language, another challenge that Aditi took up was dubbing for herself in Telugu. In fact, people who were present at the dubbing studio as she recorded her voice mention that her Telugu diction was so good that director Mohan had to ask her to make mistakes on purpose. She replies with a laugh, “That’s what they kept saying. You’ll have to ask him to know if I was really good. But I am absolutely happy that I decided to dub for myself. It’s another story that my character required it. She’s this Hindi-speaking girl who is learning Telugu and excelling at it because she wants to do well in the film industry and the flawed diction would add authenticity to it. Her willingness to learn and be better in her profession is something that I relate to.”
While she’s grown up listening to her family occasionally conversing in fluent Telugu, she states that she never really got an opportunity to learn. When asked if there is a possibility of her learning the language as she’s shooting for her second film in Telugu, a space thriller with Varun Tej and director Sankalp Reddy, and she replies, “I am not that great with languages and I don’t think it will happen that easily. I am good with mugging up lines and I give it my all and take all the help needed to ensure there’s no trouble in the lip sync. I am working hard for the next film too and can’t wait for the audience to see the film. Just like Sammohanam, the next film will be very new as well. I love challenges and anything that pushes me out of my comfort zone is welcome!”
