The actress opens up on her experiences about playing Whistle Mahalakshmi in The Warriorr, sharing screen space with Ram Pothineni and learning Tamil
Last Updated: 03.50 PM, Jul 06, 2022
Many years ago during her younger days, Krithi Shetty remembers carrying the VCD of Karthi, Tamannaah starrer Awaara (directed by N Lingusamy) to her grandmother's house, being fascinated by the movie to an extent that she watched it even three times a day. She was genuinely surprised to know that the filmmaker behind Awaara wanted her to be cast in his action entertainer The Warriorr opposite Ram Pothineni. The film is now set to hit theatres on July 14.
"N Lingusamy's stories are always entertaining. The plots are unique and there's always scope for the female lead to perform. I was very excited when I heard the story of The Warriorr. Lingusamy knows exactly what he wants from an actor and will even enact the scene, modulating his voice too if necessary," she says about the filmmaker. The Warriorr, which also marks her Tamil debut, will have her playing Whistle Mahalakshmi, an RJ, who falls in love with a cop.
Krithi did some homework for her RJ role before going to shoot. "I watched a lot of videos of Telugu RJs doing their job in addition to a few podcast videos, knowing more about international voice artistes. Even though an RJ cannot be seen by people, one must be able to communicate their emotion through their voice." Despite her preparation, there was another reason to make her nervous.
"I didn't know if I could match Ram Pothineni's energy on sets. However, once the filming began, things fell into place easily and I enjoyed the process. He is a very cool man. If Bullet is as a classy number, Whistle has a massy vibe to it. Whenever I feel I need more energy, I play Whistle and dance along. The scenes preceding these songs will also be a delight to watch," she states.
She plays a girl-next-door character in the film and identified with the story immediately. "I am sure audiences will love my character as much and relate with it. When you watch it on the big screen, it'll be like watching a girl you've noticed in your neighbourhood. I am happy to hear that audiences are liking my on-screen pairing with Ram Pothineni. The scenes between us have shaped up well. You'll need to wait longer for me to spill the beans about it," Krithi shares.
In The Warriorr, she doesn't share screen space with Aadhi Pinisetty but happened to meet him on sets one day. "He's a very soft-spoken person. It was great watching him transform into a badass villain." Krithi, beyond Ram Pothineni has a handful of scenes with veteran actress Nadhiya. "She'll play a woman with an authority."
The actress still remembers the time she watched many Ram Pothineni films to learn Telugu, right from iSmart Shankar to Ready and Hello Guru Prema Kosame. Now, she's doing the same to learn Tamil too. "I have two more Tamil films, one with Suriya and another is a bilingual with Naga Chaitanya. I am making an effort to learn Tamil. I was very surprised when Uppena received so much love from Tamil audiences too."
Krithi's next release after The Warriorr is Macherla Niyojakavargam. When asked about her dream role, she expressed her desire to take up a full-fledged action film soon.