‘Never been one for planning’

This could be the year when Telugu actress Rakul Preet Singh breaks into Tamil cinema, and she seems set to do so with some top projects. The actress, who’s an A-lister in Telugu cinema, has a couple of releases in Tamil, including Mahesh Babu’s bilingual, Spyder, and Karthi’s upcoming Theeran Adhigaram Ondru. This is in addition to a whole host of films in Telugu, and one in Hindi as well. “I like to keep myself busy with work. I haven’t taken a break for almost three and a half years now. That’s because I enjoy what I am doing,” says Rakul. She’s very excited about the Karthi film. “It is set in a lower middle-class backdrop, and Karthi and I play a young couple,” she says.

“The film beautifully captures the relationship between a husband and wife.” She plays a character who can see nothing else in the world but her husband. “It’s a new character for me, and I’m sure the Tamil audience will love to see me in the role.”

Rakul is also happy to return to Tamil cinema after four years, and is all praise for Karthi. “It feels great to be back. My co-star Karthi is extremely grounded and friendly,” she says. It was Karthi who helped her with the dialogues.

“He was my tutor and explained each dialogue and song lyric to me on the sets. I couldn’t have done my role without such help.”

Her other big release is director AR Murugadoss’s Spyder, in which she plays a ‘medico’. “She is a confused soul. She’s responsible for a lot of humour in the film. Some of her actions will leave the audience in splits.”

And for the first time, for Spyder, the actress shot in two languages simultaneously. “We would shoot a song separately in Telugu, and then in Tamil. Sometimes, it would get a bit confusing, and the whole experience was quite taxing too, for I’d have to keep learning my dialogues in both Tamil and Telugu. But at the end, I think it has all been worth it,” she says.

While her co-star Mahesh Babu is dubbing for himself in Tamil, she isn’t. “I’m still in the process of learning Tamil, and until such time when I feel like I have mastered it, I don’t think it’s fair to give dubbing a shot,” she says.

“However, as I’m quite comfortable speaking Telugu, I’ll be dubbing for the Telugu version.”