Looking back at the year that’s been…

Ritu Varma’s year began hopeful. “Honestly, 2020 started off really well!” she says. I was shooting for a Telugu film in the UK the whole of January. Then I got back to India and started shooting another Telugu film with Nani. Then Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal (KKK) released and it turned out to be a super hit. I had a lot of expectations out of this year as I thought for the first time I’d have multiple releases. I was simultaneously working on four different films; this was going to be my year! But unfortunately Covid happened, followed by the lockdown and everything just paused.”

Ritu is however, a glass-half-full person: “But again it taught us all a lot of important lessons.  I’ve learnt to appreciate things a lot more now. Somehow I think we just needed that time to re-evaluate our lives and that’s what happened with me as well.”

Waiting for the right scripts! 

Ritu is unafraid to confess that she has very specific standards and principles when it comes to making her film decisions. “I have been very selective in choosing scripts from the beginning. If you see the number of films I have done, the count is not a lot. I think it is more to do with the fact that I am an accidental actor and I would only want to do films that I would enjoy watching myself.” Fair enough!

She is also quick to admit that being choosy has its setbacks, temporary though they may be. “Post Pelli Choopulu I felt that people would expect certain things from me and the kind of films I started getting would change. Unfortunately, for a period of time that was not happening. I was not getting the right kind of scripts and a couple of Tamil films I started like Dhruva Nachitram… (Click here to read the whole interview)