I am just looking for a good subject in Kannada: Tamannaah

For all those Tamannaah Bhatia fans who have been waiting to see her in a full-fledged role in Kannada, here is a piece of good news from the pan-Indian heroine herself. “I will definitely be working as a heroine in a Kannada film very soon. I am just looking for a good subject,” she says. 

The established heroine in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, who made her Kannada debut with a cameo appearance in bilingual film Jaguar, now makes a special appearance in a song in Yash-starrer KGF. Having shared screen space with Puneeth Rajkumar in an ad, Tamannaah promises that this is just the beginning for her in the Kannada industry.

She recalls shooting for Prashanth Neel’s directorial KGF, fondly. “Working with Yash and the entire team was good. They were really warm and made me wonder why I haven’t done a full-fledged film in Kannada yet. That’s the plan in the near future,” says Tamannaah, who has been wanting to work with Puneeth for a long time. “I would definitely jump at a film with Puneeth, provided it is a good script,” she adds.  

Tamannaah’s role in SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali series changed the audiences’ perception of her. While she largely had a girl-next-door image till then, the Baahubali franchise showed the audience a completely different side of her. “Post the success of those films, filmmakers have been offering me action-oriented subjects, which are more performance-centric. In a way, Baahubali helped shape me as an actor. Now, I feel that I can fit into any character.”

Her next pan-Indian film after Baahubali is Sye Ra Narasimha Reddy, which is Chiranjeevi’s 151^st film produced by his son, Ram Charan Tej. Tamannaah has been learning classical dance for the film which is to be released in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. “I got a lot of offers for large-scale period films, but nothing excited me till Sye Ra.. came along.  Of course, to master classical dance, it takes 13 years, and I don’t have that much time. But I have been practising as and when I get time,” she says.

While she is currently working in the remake of Queen, a subject close to her heart, the actor says she is looking forward to working in more female-centric films. “Especially with filmmakers writing more meaty roles for women, it’s a great time for female actors to explore different characters,” she says.   

Tamannaah has two Telugu releases in the pipeline, the first with director Kunal Kohli and the second, a commercial entertainer, F2, directed by Anil Ravipudi, which also stars actors Venkatesh, Varun Tej and Rajesh Anandan. She also has a Tamil film, Kanne Kalaimaane with Udhayanidhi Stalin, directed by Seenu Ramaswamy.  “I have also signed on a Tamil film with Vishal that will be directed by Sundar C,” she reveals.  As for reuniting with Prabhudeva and director AL Vijay for the Devi sequel, Tamannaah says she is in talks with the makers, and can comment about it only once the production house makes an official announcement.