New Delhi: Actor Hansika Motwani talks about films, personal life and more."My family never planned for me to enter the film industry. As a child, I used to go to my mother's clinic after school. She being a dermatologist, people from the film industry came to see her, as there were very few skin specialists 10-12 years ago.
Sometimes, they would say, "She's such a bright kid; you should give her a chance to act in serials." My mother always said, "No, no! My daughter will never come into the industry!"
One day, Aruna Iraniji, whom my mother knew very well, promised to fetch me and drop me back personally if my mother let me act in 'Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand'. My mother agreed, but gave her a long list of instructions—"My daughter will only work from 4 pm to 10 pm; she will sleep at this hour; study at this hour... All this is your responsibility."
Star Plus wanted me any which way, and Aruna aunty agreed to all my mother's conditions. They even promised they would make me die in the serial. But they never did that, because the TRPs shot up as soon as I came in—you know, it happens whenever there’s a child actor.
One fine day, I was shooting in Hyderabad for a Hindi film, where I was to be launched as a heroine, and Mithunda's son was to be the hero. Puri Jagannath saw me and offered me a role in Desamuduru. I was only 14 then, and I was going to act with Allu Arjun!
The shooting coincided with my Class X board exams, so every day, I used to fly from Hyderabad to Bombay, write my exam, and fly back to the set. People ask me about difficulty with languages. I'm learning the south Indian languages, but people are so good to me that I've never felt I’m not a part of that family.
In my first film with Dhanush, he taught me so many Tamil words. In the second, Ravi used to tease me in Tamil, and I used to give back in my toota-phoota Tamil. Prabhudeva sir helped me a lot too. And then with Velayudham, Vijay was so wonderful.
Once I'm off the sets, I don't act like a celebrity; I'm Hansika.
The one downside to being an actor is that I can’t make friends—one, I don't have the time; second, either I'm afraid of people, or they're afraid of me! So I hang out with a group of my close friends, who've been with me right from childhood.
On the sets, I'm completely involved. I'm that character, never Hansika. But I'm not the kind who takes the script home and practises. I usually never watch my own films, because most of the time, I feel ashamed and think, "I could have done so much better."
My mother has been such a pillar of strength. She left her business, her dreams, her sleep for me. Because of her, I believe in hard work, followed by destiny.
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