Ileana D'Cruz on returning to Telugu cinema with Amar Akbar Anthony, and learning from mistakes

Six years after she made her Bollywood debut with Barfi, Ileana D’Cruz is all set to make her comeback in Telugu cinema. Having begun her acting career in Telugu with Devadasu in 2006, she went on to act in blockbusters like Pokiri  Kick and among other films. She was one of the biggest stars in the industry when she decided to sign Barfi. “I didn’t expect that it would take me so long to return to Telugu cinema. Initially, the idea was to juggle between Telugu and Hindi films. But after Barfi, I kept getting quite a few offers in Hindi. In the meantime, although I got roles in Telugu films, either my dates didn’t work out or I wasn’t convinced that I should take up those films. I go with my gut feeling and some projects did not feel right. Everything happens for the best, I guess. And after several years, Amar Akbar Anthony felt like the right film for me to make a comeback in Telugu cinema with,” says Ileana. [caption id=“attachment_5543431” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Ileana in Amar Akbar Anthony. Image via Twitter[/caption] The actress was in Hyderabad recently to promote the film and she was, by her own admission, quite overwhelmed with the reaction from the public at the pre-release event. “I’m here after such a long time and honestly, I didn’t know how the people at the event would react. It was quite overwhelming. I really miss Hyderabad. I get quite nostalgic about the initial phase of my career whenever I’m in the city,” she adds. Directed by Sreenu Vaitla, Amar Akbar Anthony stars Ravi Teja and Ileana in lead roles. The duo have worked with each other in three films, including Kick and the actress confesses that it’s quite a lot of fun to collaborate with Teja once again. Ask her what convinced her to take up the role and Ileana reveals, “I found the story interesting. My role has a lot of layers to it. I don’t want to reveal much about what I play in the film, but it was great to play a character that has a wide range of emotions. She has a different equation with Amar, Akbar and Anthony. Sreenu Vaitla has struck a wonderful balance between telling a new story while keeping it entertaining. It’s one of those films which keep you guessing about what’s going to happen next.” Incidentally, for the first time in her career, she has dubbed her own lines in a Telugu film. Apparently, the actress was in no mood to dub for a surprisingly different reason. “I don’t like listening to my own voice. I’ve never dubbed for a Telugu film in the past and it’s been six years since I acted in a Telugu film,” she laughs, adding, “Besides, the dialogues in Amar Akbar Anthony are really good and I thought it would make more sense if someone who’s well-versed with the language dubbed for it. But Sreenu Vaitla insisted that my voice would suit the character. I had a meltdown while dubbing and initially, I wasn’t sure if I could do it right. But it was a lot of fun, and I hope my voice isn’t too bad. I never thought I would dub for my role in a Telugu film, but when a director has so much faith in you, it makes you want to push yourself even more.” Talking about how her priorities have changed over the years, Ileana admits that she learnt a lot from the mistakes she made early in her career. “I was barely 20 when I started my acting career in Telugu. Now, I’m 32. There’s a huge difference in my personality. Initially, I wasn’t making sensible choices with films. I didn’t put too much thought into what I was doing. For instance, I was almost not going to do Pokiri. Mahesh Babu’s sister Manjula convinced me to take it up and it went on to become one of the highlights of my career. After a while, you start to respect your work and automatically, passion comes with it. And it helps you to decide what you want to do next. Your experiences help you change. I feel I’m a lot stronger now and have matured a lot. I understand and respect my work more. I don’t really have any regrets about my work. Sometimes, I feel that you need to have that growth. If I had been a very mature at 20, I wouldn’t have had the same graph. I like the fact that I’ve made my mistakes and learnt from them,” Ileana confesses. In the past few months, several women from the entertainment industry have come forward to share their #MeToo accounts. The movement is a wake up call for the whole industry, and Ileana says that she’s glad that there’s finally a discussion about sexual harassment at the workplace. “It’s very scary to talk about sexual harassment for both men and women because it’s such a painful experience to recount. It’s very brave of people to come out and talk about it. It’s necessary that people open up and we shouldn’t brush it under the carpet. You shouldn’t be ashamed of it. I hope something good comes out of the #MeToo movement in India. Producers council has been talking about setting up a committee to address such issues. I hope initiatives like this make a difference. Everyone faces it everywhere, it’s not limited to the film industry. A lot of people have been in bad situations, but thankfully, with this movement, a discourse about consent, personal boundaries, and how one defines sexual harassment, has started. It is rampant and it’s unfortunate that it still exists. Some women might feel vulnerable and weak, and they end up being targeted a lot more. It’s so unfair. No profession should make you feel pressurised to make you do something which you aren’t okay with. There should be mutual respect for everyone,” the actress states. However, she adds that it’s up to each individual if they want to talk about their past experiences or not. “I’ll talk about my experiences when I want to. Let’s not go there right now.” Despite her popularity over the years, Ileana says she hates it when people call her a ‘celebrity’, ‘star’, or a ‘superstar’. “I’m an actor. I act on screen, and after that I’m just a normal person who does regular things at home. I feel weird when people call me a star. But I’m very happy when I’m in front of the camera. It’s interesting because when I made my debut, I didn’t realise that it was something that I was meant to do. Now, I feel really lucky. Not everyone gets such opportunities” the actress signs off.