A voyage across time 

Actor Ritu Varma is gearing up for the release of the Adhik Ravichandran directorial Mark Antony, in which she will be seen alongside actor Vishal. All set to release this Friday, the film is billed as a combination of an action-packed gangster drama and a wacky time-travel adventure. Interestingly, this is the second time she will be seen in a film centred around time travel, after the 2022 film Kanam/Oke Oka Jeevitham.

When asked why she chose to star in Mark Antony, a star-studded film, Ritu says, "Adhik’s narration of the story convinced me to do the film. So far, I have not done a full-fledged commercial film in Tamil. So, I think this is going to be a new space for me, which will help me target a different section of the audience."

While she is happy to have gotten to star in a film with industry long-timers like Vishal, SJ Suryah, Selvaraghavan, and Sunil, she does agree that the film mostly revolves around male characters. "Unfortunately, most commercial films today are male-centric. I was fully aware of this fact when I signed up to do this film. So I never got insecure while filming for Mark Antony as I knew my performance would stand out once the film comes out."

Mark Antony travels majorly across two different timelines, with one set of events happening in the 80s and another in the 90s. Adhik suggested Ritu watch a lot of 90s films in order to prepare for the role. "I am a 90s kid, who grew up watching all of these films," she says, additionally explaining how they designed the looks and costumes. "A lot of research was involved to make us look as authentic as possible. Generally, when we get the looks and costumes right, the period part of a film is sorted. We did not want the looks to be too caricature-ish. So, we just kept it very casual."

Ritu's presence in the Mark Antony trailer is quite brief, similar to that of her co-star Abhinaya. When asked if her character is kept a mystery, she reveals, "I am playing Vishal’s romantic interest in the film. Still, I hope everything about the film is kept a mystery, because where is the fun otherwise?" However, it is known that she plays the partner of the younger version of Vishal, a character named Mark, in the film.

With Mark Antony releasing this week, Ritu also has the long-anticipated Dhruva Natchathiram in the pipeline. Additionally, the Pelli Choopulu actor is also working on a yet-to-be-announced Telugu film in which she is set to be seen in a unique role.