Honoured to be part of the Baahubali franchise: Anushka Shetty

At the end of the year,the tall and majestic south Indian actress Anushka Shetty has enough reasons to celebrate. Anushka starred in Baahubali, which is the year’s biggest blockbuster south Indian film. Its dubbed Hindi version is the second biggest grosser at the national box-office. Anushka has had two period films this year: Baahubali, and Rudramadevi in Telugu. And her Yennai Arindhaal in Tamil, with Ajith, was also a hit. Last week, her new bilingual film Size Zero (Inji Iduppazhagi in Tamil) opened to lot of buzz. Anushka Shetty, affectionately called Sweety by family and friends, is riding a wave, after establishing herself as one of the top actresses. The Mangalore-born Konkani, who started her career as a yoga teacher, is absolutely down to earth but keeps a distance from the media. She has been linked to some of the most handsome actors. Recently, there were rumours that she had “secretly married” her Baahubali co-star Prabhas. It turned out to be one of those wild rumours churned out by the local media. [caption id=“attachment_2526696” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Anushka Shetty in Baahubali. Image from IBN Live.[/caption] Anushka is a thorough professional, who is said to be a director’s delight. She has been criticised for doing the Maharani Devasena character in Baahubali because it surpasses her age. She played an elderly women chained to a post for most part of the film, whereas Tamannaah had the more glamorous role. Shetty’s role was more of a cameo than a full-length one. Anushka says she has immense faith in SS Rajamouli, the film’s director. In an interview with Firstpost, she explains: “My first commercial hit was Vikramarkudu (2005) in Telugu (remade in Hindi as Rowdy Rathore), which was directed by Rajamouli. I have immense faith and trust in him, that’s why I chose to do the role of Devasena. A lot of people asked me why i did such a small and insignificant role in the first part. My answer to them is simple, wait till you watch the sequel. It is a dream role. Rajamouli sir has reserved the best part for me and I’m honoured to be part of the Baahubali franchise.” She is known to go the extra mile if the role excites her. For her new release Size Zero, she played the role of a overweight girl. “ I could relate so much with the character of this obese girl who is under pressure to lose weight from her family and people around. In fact I know so many girls who go through this ordeal. The core of the film is on weight struggle, something every girl will identify with and it comes with a beautiful, subtle message. When I decided to do the film after director Prakash Kovelamudi narrated the story, the first thing that went through my mind was how to make this character earthy and convincing. I knew that we are not going to depend on prosthetic makeup as everything about her had to look normal. So I started gaining weight," said Shetty. Anushka says she decided to gain those extra kilos because she wanted to look authentic. “My legs hurt a lot as I was not used to carrying around so much body weight. But I discovered it was even more difficult to lose weight, as I had to get back in shape for Baahubali 2,” she adds. Anushka will start shooting for Baahubali 2 around the second week of December. And who knows, this could be a role which will end up being her big ticket to Bollywood.