Shanvi Srivastava bags title role in Saanvi

Every actress is in search of a film that will feature her as the protagonist, and Shanvi Srivastava has landed one such project.The actress, who has slowly slipped out of the character Meera she played in Tarak, is said to be preparing herself to play the lead in Saanvi - a film that will mark the debut of Varunadeva Kolapu.

She has played varied characters during these few years in the industry, but she admits that this is the first time that she has been intimidated by a role. That said, the actress, who will be  part of Avane Srimannarayana along with Rakshit Shetty, is glad to have bagged this film that has her play the protagonist.

Shanvi does not reveal too many details about the film, but tells us that she has a lot to share and she will do so once the project goes on floors in the early part of this year.Varunadeva refuses to pigeon-hole this film as a “female-centric” movie, and says that this is driven by the storyline. “The story is the hero,” says the first-time director, who has followed the actress’ work from her first film Chandralekha. “I believe that Shanvi is an excellent performer and has talent that has not yet been tapped into, and commercial films can’t do that either. Her one scene in Tarak, which comes in the second half, convinced me that she perfect to play this character,” says Varunadeva.

In this suspense thriller, Shanvi’s character will have three shades and the director says that there is much scope for performance. “Our film’s success will depend on my direction, cinematographer Naveen Kumar’s lighting and Shanvi’s acting talent,” he says.

The director, who has 12 years of experience working on TV series and films, has also worked with Hari Santhosh of Alemari fame. He has also worked as an associate for a couple of films such as Krishna Tulasi, for which he has also written the dialogues. The other film in which he is working as the dialogue writer is Anantu v/s Nusrat, starring Vinay Rajkumar. “I have written the story of Saanvi and will be writing the dialogues for the film,” says Varun.

The filmmakers are planning to rope in Bijjibal as the music director. The director says, “He is an award-winning music director and can contribute immensely to this movie. I have only two bit-songs in the film, but what is important to it is the background score. I want to turn this female-centric plot into a commercial success… I could cite Nayantara’s example, who usually does such strong characters. I want to create that kind of a film and that image for the actress”. The film being produced by Sridhar Kulkarni and Narayana Swamy, and the team is planning to approach Suhasini and Kishore to play pivotal roles.