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A dash of rhythm divine
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Performance is her strength. And a true blue Telugu face her asset. Yes, actress Laya is on a roll...er... rhythm. "It's the film industry which taught me everything," Laya tells K.V.S.Madhav in a tete-a-tete.
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AT A time when import of heroines from Mumbai has become fashionable in the whimsical world of Telugu cinema, the dusky damsel has stood her own. What more, Laya has carved a niche for herself among Andhraites. Her very own. Strikingly pretty and full of poise. After the award winning performance as a blind girl in `Preminchu,' not to forget the recent hit `Nee Premakai,' the quintessential Telugu girl next door is out to leave her mark on the Telugu marque as a worthy heiress to the actresses of yore for whom talent was everything.
"I joined the film industry just for the lark. I never knew what acting was all about. It is here that I learnt everything.
Now, I have started judging my performances and the finer elements of cinema,'' Laya pronounces.
First things first. Laya is not the average Telugu film star. Beyond the luridly colourful world, lies her world of black and white. A national-level chess player when she was barely eight, Laya knows her moves very well. The girl who hit big time with `Swayamvaram' is wedded to academics.
Ask her what she will be doing five years from now, pat comes the reply. "I will be, God willing, a National Award winning actress. Or else I'll be into my final year of MCA, giving finishing touches to my project. Perhaps, I'll do my MS from the US. And perhaps, set up an engineering college,'' she reels out the agenda. "I'll be its correspondent. Academic excellence will be the only criterion. No need for attendance,'' she laughs.
Engineering college? Yes. The dream stems from Laya's biggest regret - dropping out of engineering course in electronics when she was getting into the thick of films. "That is the biggest disappointment of my life. The college authorities cited lack of attendance and detained me. But, I was always good in my academics. Never ever did I get less than 70 per cent marks in any examination. Even if I had a single day's break from shooting I used to rush to Vijayawada to attend my engineering classes,'' she reasons out. "Why, I even went through ragging and was initiated into engineering conventionally,'' she breaks into her sweet smile.
Not content with the glamour and adulation of the film world, it is the call of academics that beckons her these days. She is pursuing her BCA from Indira Gandhi National Open University and is taking tuitions in computers. "My evenings are devoted to computer classes. These days I spend a lot of time on them,'' the actress says. Not just bytes, she is besotted by witty one-liners and mushy expressions, phrases. She loves to lose herself in the world of greeting cards. "I have loads of them. I just pick up good ones and keep it to myself,'' says the soft-spoken actress, as her eyes do a twinkle.
A trained Carnatic musician and Kuchipudi danseuse, the Vijayawada girl trips on mythologicals.
"It's my dream to act in one which was realised in a soon-to-be-released Vijayashanti-starrer,'' she says. And cricket too. "I break down whenever India loses. I watched `Lagaan' only for cricket and was yelling myself hoarse all through.'' A little known fact is that she had acted in the national award winning film `Bhadram Koduko' as a child artiste.
Gunasekhar's `Manoharam' - "but for it, I wouldn't have survived" - and `Preminchu' wherein she lent her voice for the first time - "it made feel complete as an actress" - are her most cherished movies.
Prod the Libran with shades of Scorpio in her about Telugu film-makers' obsession for Mumbai heroines, Laya shrugs: "We can't help it. But I have my own place playing realistic roles that everyone can identify with.''
Her own place. Yeah, no stopping this `wave.'
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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