'I'm known by my original name here'

Bhavana Rao is on a high these days. After all, she is busy doing a number of films and is constantly shuttling between Bangalore and Chennai, balancing her work in the two film industries.

For the first time, the actress is going completely de-glamourous for her role in film-maker AMR Ramesh’s Attahasa, which is based on the life of the forest brigand Veerappan.

Bhavana reveals that she plays a crucial role in the film. Her character is called Chandini and she is the love interest of Veerappan’s trusted aide, Gurunath, in the film.

With a lot of scope to perform in this role, Bhavana also says that the real challenge was to get into the skin of the character.

“She is a woman of the Lambani tribe. I had to spend a lot of time researching for the role in order to get the look and the body language right. I actually watched a lot of old movies in which veteran actresses had portrayed similar characters,” she tells Metrolife.

It was during her research that she realised how bold and beautiful Lambani women are by nature. “I really enjoyed playing this character as it really brought out a side of me that I didn’t know existed,” she adds.

While her look in the movie has not been revealed officially, Bhavana says that since most of the shooting took place in the forest, she had to remove all of her make-up and wear a lot of stickers that depicted the Lambani tattoos on  her body. “I must thank the director as he really gave me the confidence and showed me how I could excel while playing the character,” she adds.

Meanwhile, word is out that Bhavana has changed her name to Shikha in the Tamil film industry. Ask her why this sudden change and the actress says that it had nothing to do with numerology.

“It was actually to clear out confusions. In the Tamil industry, there is another Bhavana and I kept getting calls from people asking if I was her. And I am sure she too kept facing the same problem.

That’s why I thought it would be better if I changed my name there. But in Kannada, I am known by my original name so I have stuck to it here,” she adds.