Express News Service
She’s been a model, played a blink-and-miss role in last year’s Velaiilla Pattadhari 2, featured in the first season of Bigg Boss Tamil, and now, it’s all come to fruition for Raiza whose debut as lead in last week’s release Pyaar Prema Kaadhal has come in for quite some praise. The actor, just like her film’s co-star Harish Kalyan, expresses much gratitude to Bigg Boss Tamil. “The show let the world know who I am and how I look. Moreover, when the team of PPK was looking for a lead, they wanted a fresh face, and that’s how things fell into place,” says Raiza, who says she’s very happy with the positive reception the film has received. “Everybody who has seen the film has had good things to say about it. We all did our roles well, and it’s our joint effort that has made the film a hit. I’m proud to have been a part of this film.”
The chemistry she shares with Harish has been cited as one of the reasons for the film’s success. “I know Harish through Bigg Boss, of course. We spent a little bit of time together in the Bigg Boss house,” says Raiza, adding that they’re good friends. “We had a lot of rehearsals along with the workshops, and so, we spent quite a bit of time together. We really got comfortable with each other and that, I guess, translated onto the screen. It was far easier than working with a stranger would have been.”Her character in the film is that of an urban, independent woman. “Every girl today is ambitious. Women want to work, and have dreams. Many of them are independent and so I’m sure everyone would identify with Sindhuja.”
Raiza says she didn’t consider acting to be her only option after modelling. “I kept my options open. Acting was one of many choices because I didn’t think it would be a sure-shot opportunity,” says the actor. “Acting is a much bigger ball game and it’s a whole different world altogether.” Ask her how the transition to cinema has been, and she turns philosophical. “Nothing in life is easy (smiles). Anything that’s going to give you a lot of money and get a lot of people watching, is going to be hard. So the minute I signed the film, I knew I had to put in much hard work,” says Raiza. “I was mentally prepared for the role and my acting classes came in handy as well.”
Her Wikipedia page says that she did her schooling in Ooty. Did that perhaps make it easier for her to learn her Tamil lines? “Some of the info on my Wiki page isn’t true actually, but the Ooty part is correct (laughs). To be honest, though, that didn’t really help me with the language as I studied in a school where we barely communicated in Tamil,” says Raiza. “But in the Bigg Boss house, there was a rule that we had to converse only in Tamil. So I’d say Bigg Boss helped me improve my Tamil,” adds Raiza, who says she isn’t quite following the events of the show’s second season.
Before I can complete my question about her promotion from a supporting artist in VIP 2 to the lead in PPK, Raiza interjects, “My role in VIP 2 wasn’t really a supporting role. I think it was more a modelling assignment. I had no lines and simply had to stand in scenes that had me. So I don’t really consider it an acting role.” The actor will next be seen in Arjun Reddy’s Tamil remake Varma that is directed by Bala and features Vikram’s son Dhruv in the lead. “I’m playing a cameo in Varma and I’m not allowed to speak about the film. I want to work more in the industry. So I’ll be listening to a lot of scripts. I don’t really mind which language I work in though,” says Raiza.
