'I am a South Actress and South Films are home to me'

Musician-actor Shruti Haasan is cheerful as usual as we connect with her over a call. And she has all reasons to be upbeat – her portrayal of Meethu/ Adya in the latest web series, Bestseller, that premiered on Amazon Prime has been receiving rave reviews.

“I am frequently being offered films and series in Hindi but there is this constant belief among people that Shruti’s focus is in Hindi or she has been dabbling between south and Hindi films. When I work in the south, it isn’t ‘dabbling’; south is my home and I consider myself as a south actress first. Though I made my debut in Hindi, it was films like 7aam Arivu, 3 and my first major hit in the south, Gabbar Singh, that challenged the actor in me. So, I have been reticent when it comes to Hindi projects. Even when I was given the script of Bestseller, I said I would check it out. The producer, Sidharth Malhotra, told me he liked me in Oh My Friend, a film that not many people in Mumbai would have seen. It is a character I really liked but it didn’t grab eyeballs as it deserved. It intrigued me that someone had taken their time off to watch it. Also, as an actor, it was promising because of the character’s graph. Each character is like a missing piece of a puzzle that the actor has to sit on and put together. My character in Bestseller is similar to that – a puzzle I had solved,” she begins.

Shruti’s ventures into OTT platforms with Puttham Pudhu Kaalai, Pitta Kathalu and now Bestseller have largely been successful. She smiles when we tell her that we could see her appetite for acting being satiated with such roles and would love to see her more in such stories.

“I would love to see myself in such roles in future. There are some formulae in mainstream cinema when it comes to the portrayal of women that one need not really have to adhere to. When it comes to OTT, there is enough time for a character to build itself up,” she adds.

Shruti admits that her approach to acting has completely changed recently compared to her career in the last 12 years. Being academically oriented, she has also worked with acting coaches, Shruti adds. “I am a trained musician but acting happened to me by chance. I literally walked on to a movie set, so my enjoyment of solving a puzzle as an actor is a recent occurrence. My approach towards acting has changed from what it was in the last decade. I was conscious about how I would pull it off or how people would connect to it. Honestly, I realised that I wasn’t connected to my characters. Before Si 3 happened, I asked my friends if anyone knew the acting coaches of Tom Hanks or Michael Fassbender so that I could take lessons from them. I secretly travelled to England and took lessons from Michael Fassbender’s acting coach. I learnt acting from scratch and played characters of Arthur Miller. That process was beautiful. After that experience, I have started enjoying cinema more,” she reveals.

Shruti, who is a part of a pan-Indian film like Salaar, says that any story that has a human connect will be pan-Indian or could even connect with the global audience.

“I have been raised in a pan-Indian environment. My mum and dad are from different cultures and the school I attended had students from different ethnicities. So for me, it is the human connect that matters. Minnal Murali was made for Malayalam audience but it went on to grab the attention of people across India. Squid Game, a Korean show, has fans across the world. Likewise, Salaar, too, will be absorbed by the audience across languages. I like Prabhas as a person and he is fun to work with. It is like joining a tuition class and suddenly you see a nice kid and like going there. I really like what Prashanth Neel did with KGF. I have been working across genres and in that space Prashanth is a master in creating an own world altogether,” she adds.

Shruti adds that she is glad to have joined the sets of Chiranjeevi’s Mega 154. “He is a legend and it has been inspiring to work with him. The role that Bobby offered me was interesting and I can’t wait for you all to watch it,” she says.

She has also been setting fashion goals through her social media posts and is exhilarated to talk about it. “My sense of fashion comes from my music. When I attended school, we knew which kid liked what music with the way they dressed. For me, it has always been goth. People ask me why I always dress in black. It is because I like goth music. Even in sarees, I wear black,” she concludes with a smile.