“Most models and actors tell you that they landed the role by chance and that they didn’t plan to have a career in acting, but mine was not like that. I carved my path to where I am and have planned my road well. However, this wasn’t a childhood dream or a teenage passion. It all started with a friend of mine introducing me to Instagram and telling me how it is a platform where I can share my pictures and nobody can download it. I was told how it was safe and only those people whom I allow to follow me can see my pictures, I got excited and created an account. I was having fun exploring the features the app had and was flaunting my photos.
While I was busy exploring Instagram, I noticed that a lot of non-celebrity girls who were just like me, a girl next door, had a lot of followers and their posts got 100s of likes, I got curious and looked for patterns, that’s when I realized that all these girls were into Dubsmashes, but I was sure I could do it better than them. My expressions could be more convincing and realistic is what I believed in. So, I started my journey as a Dubsmasher too and was focusing on creating more and more videos from Vadivelu’s comedy and its kind as I found that entertaining.
A few of my friends in the class started to troll me for doing dub smashes, I had over 3000 followers in 2 months, while that doesn’t seem like a huge deal now, for someone in college who has no exposure to the outside world, it was a big deal. The trolling didn’t get me down as I was happy about being recognized. I was in Vellore all this while and I got a call from a YouTube channel called Narrikootam and they wanted me to act in a video for them, I asked if they could come and do the shoot in Vellore instead of me having to travel to Chennai as my parents would never agree to me going to a different city for acting. They said it wasn’t possible and went ahead with the shoot using a different girl. But they weren’t convinced and wanted to reshoot the whole portion with me. They had gotten in touch with me through a friend of a friend, and kept asking me to consider this as the shoot wouldn’t take more than four hours.
That’s when I got an interview call from Zoho, it was on a Sunday evening at their campus, I used this opportunity to travel to Chennai and was under the impression that I could finish the shoot in four hours and then get back to my interview which was in the evening, finish it, and head back home. But the day went on like a blink of an eye and I had so much fun that I forgot about my interview. I lied to my parents that I didn’t make it through and got back to my regular college life.
The video was well-received and it was flooded with a lot of positive comments from people who were appreciative of our efforts.
I enjoyed the experience and continued doing videos for Narikootam over the weekends where I travel to Chennai from Vellore in the morning, finish the shoot and head back home. But then, things had to change when I got placed in Cognizant and had to move to Coimbatore for my training. Traveling to Chennai for the shoot became difficult, even my friends (guys at Nari Kootam), didn’t upload a lot of new videos during this period of three months, in the ones they had uploaded, people were asking about Poornima, was never that happy! It meant that people not only recognize or notice me but also appreciate our work.
I came back to Chennai after my training and used to shoot over the weekends, the job was getting monotonous in office and I wasn’t finding time to visit my parents as shoots kept me busy when I didn’t have to go to work. I decided to quit my job and focus on acting. But I wasn’t sure about breaking the news yet to my parents, I took a break, tried for a few opportunities and Tamada Media came knocking. I told my parents that work was stressful and that I have decided to focus on acting. They were in shock but supported my decision to quit my job at Cognizant and apply for one in Amazon, I had to talk them out of those ideas of me in a Corporate job and told them how acting is my passion and I wish to make it big here.
Wirally team was sure that a comedy exclusive show featuring me would work, they produced Araathi, it’s been a success, people have been recognizing me everywhere I go. It’s been great and I am enjoying this, but to me, this is just the beginning. I wish to make it big in the acting space. I strongly believe that acting has got nothing to do with the way a person looks, and Danush is someone who proved it in Tamil Cinema. You love him or hate him, you just cannot ignore him when he comes on screen, his on-screen persona is something that gives me goosebumps every single time and that is where I aspire to be!”
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