‘Actors need to continue reinventing themselves’

Twenty-year-old actor Akshatha Sreedhar Shastry says she wants to work on performanceoriented roles.

Akshatha Sreedhar Shastry’s career graph has seen a steady increase since the time she entered Sandalwood. Though she is busy with varied projects, the artiste says she is on the lookout for more serious roles. As she turned 23 on Sunday, the actress talked to Metrolife about her journey so far and upcoming roles.

In a career spanning over four years, you have done varied roles. What’s coming up next?

I’ve been a part of 15 projects in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. The last few films released in Kannada include ‘Parthasarathi’, ‘Rajannana Maga’, ‘Uddishya’ and ‘Trataka’. ‘Ambassador’ and ‘Rajeeva’ are lined up for release soon.

Tell us a bit about your roles in ‘Ambassador’ and ‘Rajeeva’.

The roles are entirely different. I play a college student in ‘Ambassador’ and a village belle who is a medical student in ‘Rajeeva’. Both characters have their own specific nuances. The films are ready for release and waiting for censor certificates.

How would you define your journey till now?

All the roles I have done have been unique in their own ways. From bubbly to mature characters, I’ve been lucky to play them all. This variety is important because actors need to continue reinventing themselves.

A dream role…

I would love to work on a role like ‘Arundhati’. I don’t think such a role has been explored in Kannada films. I want to be part of more women-oriented projects and do bold and exclusive roles like what Deepika Padukone and Nayantara are known for. I would jump at an offer
to work in a film like Priyanka Chopra’s ‘Fashion’.

What is an ideal role according to you?

For me the right roles mean where I can push my capacities as an actor and do something fresh. I do not want to work on films for the sake of it. I’m in search of more performance-oriented films than being in just a glamorous screen presence.

Any resolutions on your birthday…

I want to keep pushing my boundaries as an actor and work on my acting skills. I had to put on some weight for a role for and now I’m working on getting back to being trim avatar and fit.