Shourya denies dating Niharika

Ever since the songs and trailer of ‘Oka Manasu’ hit the web world, Naga Shourya’s sizzling chemistry with Niharika Konidela has been the talk of the town. So much so that gossip mills went into overdrive claiming that the two are an item but Shourya shoots down such reports as just rumours. “I’m glad to be linked to a new heroine, at last!” he chuckles. “I was bored of being linked to Raashi Khanna and Sonarika Bhadoria. I was linked to Regina even before I did a film with her. Now that I’m doing a film with her, let’s see what’s in store.”

He goes on, “Rumours are nothing new to me. Although my family was a bit worried initially, they now got habituated to them.” On a funny note, he points out that nobody is attaching his name to Anushka Shetty. “I’ve mentioned how much I like Anushka in the past but nobody wrote anything about it,” he says with a wishful smile.

Coming to ‘Oka Manasu’, Shourya admits to have been intimidated by Niharika to begin with. “I was afraid of her initially as she comes from a big family. I thought she will not care about me but as I started working with her, I realised that she was crazy about acting. She is quite cool.” Talking about his character in the romantic drama, directed by Ramaraju of ‘Mallelatheeramlo’ fame, he shares, “I play Surya, a wannabe leader. It’s a role very close to who I’m in real life. I haven’t taken any references for the part; I’ve just followed my director’s vision.”

The actor was in the news recently for walking out of debutant director Sai Chaitanya’s project. Commenting on what transpired, he confides, “Some terms and conditions didn’t work out. I’ve given them eight months to come up with a tight script but they didn’t. In the meanwhile I got a call from director Sukumar for a project under his production. I’ve liked the script and decided to go ahead with it. It will roll in August.”

By Nagaraj Goud