Four straight hits in three languages Genelia

I MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT

With four straight hits in three languages and one more Nandi Award in her kitty for 'Katha', Genelia is on a roll professionally and personal-

Karthik Pasupulate

Marriage has proven to be lucky for her. Smiling back in agreement, Genelia Deshmukh quips, "When "Tere Naal..." released I said 'hopefully it will be my belated marriage gift' and it turned out be a big hit. I am hoping my Telugu film will turn out to be another marriage gift from Hyderabad." (She laughs.)
Talking about her role in the film with Rana and Harshavardhan Rane, that just hit the marquee, the actress says, "Krishnaveni is a lively character, but she is also very mature and traditional. That's what fascinated me. The film is about a boy who is selfish and a girl who is selfless. It deals with how people generally misunderstand what love is and what being for each other is meant to be."
She sure must be knowing a thing or two about what 'being for each other' means, considering her more than a decade-long courtship which recently ended in marriage. "Two people growing together is the most beautiful aspect of being in a relationship. It was special when I met Riteish 10 years ago and it still is," she says adding, "I highly recommend marriage to everyone."
They say marriage changes people and ask her if she's noticed anything change about her, she replies saying, "I don't know. Perhaps it's too early and we have both been so busy with work that we haven't had the time to discover new things about each other. In any case, when you know someone for over 10 years, there are very few new things to discover."
Post marriage, does the actress intend to continue acting, given that she admits that her priorities have changed? "Of course, I will continue acting in films as that is what defines me as a person. But priorities change, I used to be busy for 365 days a year earlier, but now that will change," she says adding that she's in no hurry to go the family way. "Well that will happen when it has to, there's still time for that," she quips.
And will her marital status affect the kind of roles she is going to play? "A lot of people often ask me why I stick to typically bubbly characters. Honestly, I don't see it that way. The characters I play might all be young girls, but each character is different, just as each girl is different from the other. The two Nandi awards I won are for two entirely different characters — the bubbly Haasini in "Bommarillu" and the much more subdued Chitra in "Katha". I am glad to have got to play the kind of characters I got to play. You might want to do certain things, but you have to get that opportunity as well," she reasons.
Perhaps that's a consequence of having to do a role like Haasini, which was so universally acclaimed. "A lot of people named their kids as Haasini after "Bommarillu". The credit for that must go to director Bhaskar for coming up with a character which connected with everyone who's seen the film in Telugu and Tamil. I have also played the role in Hindi, but it is yet to release. I am glad I got to do something like that. For all those who harp on my doing 'bubbly roles', obviously I must be doing something right to have been around for 10 years in five different film industries," she says on a parting note.
karthik.pasupulate@timesgroup.com