I’m done with dumb roles: Sameera Reddy

Sameera Reddy has reason to smile. The actor has had a good start this year, with her last Tamil film opposite Madhavan raking in the moolah at the BO. Moreover, the director of her upcoming film Tezz, Priyadarshan, has been conferred with the fourth highest civilian award of the country, the Padma Shri. “I told Priyadarshan sir that he should receive one of those titles. He would say, ‘I feel humbled, but that’s a great achievement and beyond my expectations.’ Both Shabana Azmiji (who won the Padma Bhushan) and Priyadarshan sir are close to me. So when their names were announced, I called them up. ‘We are so humbled,’ is what they both said to me,” says Sameera.

The actor also says that she’s going to be more picky about the roles she chooses. “I want to play more performance-oriented characters. I’m done playing dumb, good-looking girl roles,” she says. Ask Sameera if she is hinting at the lukewarm response to Vedi, her Tamil outing with Vishal in which she played exactly that kind of role, and she says, “I cannot pinpoint one particular film. After Vaaranam Aayiram, I did few roles that required me to look and act in a certain way. I became synonymous with such characters. That’s why for my film with Maddy, I told director Lingusamy that I would play the role of a village girl. I want to do what Simran and Jyothika did in Kollywood.”

And finally, has Sameera been in touch with celebrity television anchor Oprah Winfrey, whom she recently met in Mumbai? “Since Oprah loved the sari I was wearing at the do at which I met her, I sent her a similar one as a gift. I consider the souvenir a representation of our country and I hope it will be one of her memories of her India visit,” says Sameera.