Sandalwood calling

SRIKANTH SRINIVASA chats up Kolkata girl Priyanka Trivedi, who is 
working in some of the big projects in Kannada film industry 

Kannada film industry has of late been seeing a steady influx of Bengali belles. However, this girl is no newcomer to the Kannada film industry. She has had two releases in Kannada – the controversial H2O and the hit Kotigobba. Her mother is a Bengali and her father hails from UP.

Priyanka Trivedi, the Kolkata-born lissome lass and Miss Calcutta 1996 has been signed up for at least three Kannada films. Priyanka is currently working in Rowdy Aliya opposite Shivarajkumar and Panduranga Vittala opposite Ravichandran. She has completed Malla with Ravichandran, which is ready for release. Deccan Herald caught up with Priyanka Trivedi for a tete-a-tete with the actress on the sets of Rowdy Aliya. Excerpts:

What is your educational background? 
I am lucky to have spent 10 years of my schooling life in the US and about three years in Singapore. I finished my BCom from Kolkata. 

How did you get into films? 
I had done a couple of television commercials for brands such as Britannia, Orient Fans and Pillsbury. I didn’t want to get stuck with just television ads. I met director Basu Chatterjee during my holidays who was then planning to make his first Bengali film. He knew that I was modeling. I was cast by him to play the female lead in Hotath Brishti (sudden rain), which was a remake of Tamil hit Kadhal Kotai. I followed this up with two more films in my mother tongue – Chhupi Chhupi and Tok Jhal Mishti (on the lines of Shaukeen). 

When did you catch the attention of South Indian film-makers?
I shifted to Mumbai and did Harry Baweja’s film Jawab Se Bachao opposite Arshad Warsi, Suman Ranganath and Mukul Dev which had an average run. Perhaps, my Hindi film caught the attention of South Indian directors. I got a number of offers down here such as Durga in Telugu and Hindi, Raa in Telugu (opposite Upendra), the controversial film H2O and Kotigobba (opposite Vishnuvardhan) in Kannada, Rajyam (opposite Dilip and Vijaykanth), Raja (opposite Ajith), Kadhal Sadugodu (opposite Vikram) and Jananam in Tamil. 

Which are the films that you are currently doing? Why did you refuse to talk about H2O? 
I am doing a Bengali film Saathi which is a remake of Thulladamanamum Thullam in which I play the role of a blind girl, Rowdy Aliya and Panduranga Vittala in Kannada. I just don’t want to talk about H2O because the film is over and it was in the making for a long time.

Why didn’t you choose to continue in Bollywood? How do you manage to accept assignments in different languages? 
I am enjoying myself acting in the South Indian films and Bengali films. I have been lucky to get offers to act opposite big stars here in the South. I don’t want to go back to Mumbai and start from scratch because I will need a good launch. Moreover, there is a lot of competition out there. It’s switch on and switch off for me when it comes to acting in so many languages. I have picked up a few lines in all these languages. I am still learning and am quite critical about myself, my looks and how I act. 

How do you describe yourself? 
I am a little introverted, pretty flexible as a person, a good listener and overtly sensitive.