Interview With Madhu Shalini

She is pretty, she is talented, she was crowned Miss Andhra in 2005 and above all she is our own padaharanala Telugu ammayi. Vexed with not getting any meaningful offers here, model turned actress Madhushalini is working in Tamil films and has been living in Theni near Madurai for over a year now. Avan Ivan directed by Bala is getting ready to hit the theatres in April and she is already being approached to work in more Tamil projects.

Is it good bye to Telugu cinema? Madhu Shalini says she is tired of proving her existence, tired of telling people she is born, brought up in Andhra Pradesh, speaks Telugu and also holds a portfolio that points out at her insignificant work in a few Telugu films. “If there are around 20 Telugu actresses, they would perhaps pick one or two but if there are only two actresses here why would they choose me?,” questions Madhu a tad dissapointedly.

When she hears directors and producers making statements very often about the dearth of Telugu actresses, she merely remarks..oh yeah! Well at this point of time, the actress says she has passed through the stage of pondering and a self analysis of why she isn’t wanted here, grown out of it. “A couple of bad experiences make you strong,” she avers.

Madhu Shalini never planned a film career, she started modeling in the tenth standard, but after winning the crown the next possible career option was movies, the three or four films she worked and what followed didn’t give her any satisfaction and she waited for quite some time for good scripts. When things didn’t move,director Bala offered her a film opposite Arya. The dubbed version of this Tamil film will be out on April 8th.

Bala’s films are mostly village based stories, no glam sham and very realistic and Madhu was more than happy to be a part of his team. She plays a college-going girl and the romantic scenes between her and Arya is very sweet.

Recollecting her initial days in films, she laughs aloud. She didn’t have anyone to guide her and had no clue how to conduct herself, she learnt everything by trial and error. She was skinny and movie people told her to put on weight which was quite difficult for her. After hogging pastries, icecreams she moved to an extra three kilos and they remarked that she was too heavy for a heroine’s role and that left her confused.

A worldy wise Madhu Shalini now adds, “It’s not skinny or being voluptuous that matters, luck plays a major role here.” Madhu Shalini worked in a film in 2009 titled Karalu Miriyalu which is due for release soon. It is a comedy cum thriller and the tale is based entirely around three major characters and the film actually has just five people in it.

Does she miss home? The actress’s home is in Malakpet, when here she lives with her joint family. She does miss this place especially when her cousins, friends call her over the phone and tell her that they’ve gathered to have a blast but the actress has a goal to reach. It’s all work for Madhu Shalini now and she’s enjoying every moment of it, in her free time she’s learning classical dance and hopes that would add value to her work.