'My character in Naduve Antaravirali was beyond my capacity'

After a two-year break post Rocket, Aishani Shetty took on the romantic drama Naduve Antaravirali. Ahead of the release of the film, the actor says she is keen to see herself on the big screen after a long time. 

“While I was doing Vaastu Prakara and Rocket, I was still an undergraduate student. I had more time to juggle between studies and shooting. But when I began pursuing my Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism, I couldn’t allocate the kind of time that a commercial film would require. Since the balancing act was getting hard, I decided to first concentrate on completing my studies,” says Aishani.

However, when Naduve Antaravirali came her way, the subject was something she couldn’t resist. “The story was appealing and I didn’t want to let go of such a film,” she says. But it was when she started research on her character that she realised its complexity. “Nithya’s character was quite challenging but had much scope for performance,” she shares.

According to Aishani, Naduve Antaravirali is an emotional love story that is set in a closed society. She says that even though the character is around her age and she could grasp the mentality of a college student, it was difficult for her to relate to the situation and it became a challenge. “The film deals with a sensitive topic and is based on things that are unspoken in society. She falls into a crisis that is hard for a girl of that age to handle. It is quite a sensitive subject and something I wasn’t able to relate to. Which is why it became important for me to understand the character’s psychology before taking it up. I felt that the character was beyond my capacity,” she says.  

It’s here that director Raveen Kumaara came into the picture and made it easy for her, even going to the extent of planning the film's shooting around her college schedule. “So, I mostly shot during semester breaks and holidays,” she adds.

Touted to be a 'cute' love story, Aishani assures that Naduve Antaravirali is not a run-of-the-mill commercial film. 

Now that she has completed her education, the actor says she will be taking up acting seriously. “That’s what I always wanted to do. But I felt that gaining a degree was the top priority.”

With her college girl looks, Aishani has been labelled 'cute', but she is hoping to break free of that tag by taking up versatile roles. “I try not to choose the same kinds of characters and films. Thankfully, the directors who have approached me so far have offered me different kinds of scripts,” she says.