1 week Ago By Mid-day
She initially planned to make her comeback with a biopic on Indian freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu, titled Sarojini Naidu—The Unsung Freedom Fighter. However, the pandemic and elections disrupted Shanthi Priya’s plans in 2020. In the interim, she shot for Dharavi Bank (2022), and the Tamil film, Bad Girl.
Produced by filmmaker Vetri Maaran, directed by Varsha Bharath, and presented by Anurag Kashyap, Bad Girl won an award at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. Priya says, “Bad Girl is a beautiful comeback after 30 years for me. In this coming-of-age drama about a teenager, whose aim in life is to have a boyfriend, I play her mother.
It’s a relationship conflict between a daughter and her mother. When I signed this film, [in my head] it was about what my mother, and now me, went through to raise kids.” Kashyap saw the rushes of Bad Girl when good friend Maaran invited him on set and then expressed his desire to present the story.
“Anurag believed in the story, producer and director. He felt that this film needed to be put out everywhere,” she says. While Priya basks in the reaction to the film, she remains keen to return to the set of Naidu’s biopic, directed by Vinay Chandra, to portray the poet in her senior years.
“The remaining one-and-a-half schedule should be completed by this year,” says the actor, who made her Bollywood debut opposite Akshay Kumar in Saugandh (1991). Ask her if she stays in touch with her former co-star Kumar, and Priya shares that she is “looking forward to an opportunity to work with him”. Shanthi Priya’s Bollywood filmsA still from Saugandh.
Saugandh (1991). Mere Sajana Saath Nibhana (1992). Phool Aur Angaar (1993).
Veertaa (1993). Ikke Pe Ikka (1994).
