Hardly have time to spend with people close to me: Anushka

Anushka Shetty talks to us on a call ahead of the release of her film Silence on Amazon Prime on October 2. The actress, for the first time in her career, plays a speech and hearing impaired person. “Initially, I was clueless because I am someone who learned acting and emotions through dialogues. So, this was challenging. As the film progressed, the shoot was shifted to the US and I learnt the American sign language. Anushka says that it was pretty interesting to have learnt it for the character. “We were trained by an actor named Olivia Dunkley, who has learnt sign language for 13 years now. The world of people who are specially challenged is something different. The way they observe things and the subtitles that they read are quite different. I was able to get a sneak-peek into their world through this role,” she adds. This is the second time in 14 years, Anushka has shared screen space with Madhavan after Rendu. “Only when I met Maddy again, I realised time has flown away so fast. We have been busy with our respective careers and he is the same fun person who I met during Rendu,” she adds.

There have also been rumours that the actress wasn’t happy with the makers’ decision of releasing the film on an OTT platform. “Those are just rumours. It is always a director’s and a producer’s call on which platform their films should release. I have no say in it,” she says. Anushka also says that she hasn’t shifted her focus from Tamil films. “Having started my career in Hyderabad, I have been part of good Tamil films. I would definitely want to work with Ajith, Suriya, Vikram and Vijay again. Of late, a film is being made in multiple languages. Baahubali released in Tamil and so will Silence. So, I am still a part of Tamil film industry,” she says.

When asked if COVID has put an end to her marriage rumours as we haven’t seen any reports on her wedding recently, she laughs. “I have done so much work in 14 years that I hardly get to spend time at home. I don’t get enough time to spend even with people who already exist in my life. This lockdown, I have been spending a lot of time at home. Though I am a private person, I have given time to people close to me. Also the lockdown has taught us about how fragile our life is and how important humanity is to all of us,” she concludes.