Larger-than-life roles give Nivetha ‘ultimate high’
The 'Chitralahari' actor, who is currently working with Ram Pothineni in Red, shares details of her role, aspirations, and future projects
The appeal that Nivetha Pethuraj brings on screen is quite different from any typical female star. Her eyes do the talking more than her expressions. But she gets to play second heroine roles in most of her Telugu films — right from Brochevarevarura, and Chitralahari, to Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and now Red, Nivetha doesn’t regret playing the limited on-screen roles.
“I don’t have complaints, Allu Arjun-starrer Ala.. has reached every section of viewers. If one is eligible for a certain role, it certainly comes to him or her,” she smiles. Nearly a year after Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, she says she is happy to have her movie Red coming on Sankranti.
Nivetha says she is blessed to get offers from directors she earlier worked with. “That’s how I landed in Red. The story was narrated to me when I was working with Kishore Tirumala during Chitralahari movie. Kishore is one of those directors I can blindly trust when it comes to okaying scripts,” says Nivetha, who is playing the role of a sub-inspector in the movie Red starring Ram Pothineni in dual roles.
“Red is the remake of the Tamil movie Thadam. I play a cop who is very innocent although her outward appearance looks quite tough and stout. I didn’t have to toil much for the role of a cop, as I felt there is not much transformation required for it from my regular glam roles. I just had to follow the flow of director Kishore as he made the character a little soft and subtle. However, I still had this concern because I didn’t want the role to be like the one that I had played in Chitralahari,” she says.
Praise for co-star
Nivetha has high praise for her co-star Ram Potheni for the way he switches from one character to another. “He doesn’t take any rehearsal for dual roles. When I asked him whether he had any rehearsal done prior to the shooting, he said no. Ram says he is cut out for such challenging roles. He is one of those actors who doesn’t carry the character after the word cut. That’s one thing I have enjoyed about him. When I was doing Chitralahari, I went into a kind of depression. Very moody and very low all the time. From Ram, I learnt that you don’t have to be in the character all the time. He is very professional and he has a very weird sense of humour — he just cracks jokes on the sets and laughs out loud at witty things,” she says.
Exploring new horizons
Nivetha, a former Miss India-UAE pageant, says she wants to explore new horizons in her film career, besides also playing ultra-glam roles. “I want to be the female version of Tamil superstar Vijay Sethupathi. I want to become everything he does — comedy, villainy and characters with rough and rugged looks… everything. Because those have more life as an actor than playing a glam doll of commercial cinema. Because female actors usually fade out in just two years, but the roles that reach audiences don’t fade, they have larger-than-life charisma,” she beams.
Nivetha has some interesting projects in her kitty — Vishwak Sen’s Paagal, Rana Daggubati’s Virata Parvam, besides Chandu Mondeti’s Telugu web film.
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