I look like South Indian in a bindi: Priyashri 

Priyashri is the latest Mumbai import who will be making her acting debut in Tollywood. She’s paired opposite Nani in her forthcoming romantic entertainer ‘Majnu’, directed by Virinchi Varma.

Recalling her road to showbiz, the actress shares, “I am a shy girl who never thought to get into acting even in my wildest dreams. I wanted to be yoga teacher (smiles). But I used to be active in stage play and dramatic activities in school.

I felt so happy being on stage and performing, so I thought I could make a career in the field of arts. I did an acting course and later started modelling. When I was in Hyderabad for an ad shoot, I auditioned for the role. The director then took a black marker, put bindi on me then took my audition, that’s it. They narrated me my role and I was on board.”

Stressing on her role, Priyashri reveals, “I play Suma, a happy go-lucky adorable girl who believes living in the moments and feels life is a celebration. She falls in love with Majnu because of his sense of humor.

Initially, I was given western outfits but later the director felt that I look good in bindis. Since my look has to complement my outfits, we have zeroed in on a look that is a mix of Indian and western attires. In fact, people say that ‘I look like s South Indian’ in bindi. I feel happy. I love putting bindis and I have a collection too.”

Priyashri feels there was so much to take back from her debut project. “First of all, working with Nani is a fantastic experience. Also, I learnt a lot things after the film, I got a better understand over things like acting, lighting, camera angles, technical aspects, hair and makeup, costumes, etc.”

The former model states that language (Telugu) has never been a barrier. “Thankfully my team helped me to deal with it. In fact, I rehearsed so hard for my lines that even after coming to Mumbai, I continued saying like avunu, alage, sare, kada.

My parents saw a couple of scenes from my film. They were surprised and asked me how I am managing to speak lengthy Telugu dialogues at one go (laughs). I don’t want to lose touch over Telugu because I want to do a lot of films,” she signs off.