Screen Talk: ‘I can wear a half-saree and still look hot’

She’s one of the most glam girls in the Telugu and Tamil industries at the moment. But the veejay-turned-actress says it’s no big deal. “What’s the challenge in looking glam? Anybody can do it. Look around — everybody’s working hard trying to look glam — it’s not hard to achieve!”

Which is why the actress has now decided to do deglamorised roles. “I know it’s drastically different, but I’m not going to be a part of the bandwagon and push myself towards a very achievable target,” she says. And she kept her word in her latest Tamil flick Thimiru. “I play a village belle full of spunk and I wear only traditional clothes with a kondai. But I’ve proved that I can wear a half-saree and still look hot!”

Attitude, she says, is important for an actress. “It’s a quality that determines how you look to the world and how the world views you. I wore my half-sarees with the same attitude that I wear my short skirts, so not once did I look uncool.”

It’s the same attitude that Shreya adopts when offered a film with stellar casting and huge remunerations. “Just because the film boasts of a big hero, I’m not going to shake my hips around him. I need to have some scope to explore my creative instincts too. I also can’t dance and I hate dancing to folk numbers. So I tell my directors that if they want me in their films they better learn to deal with this.” When Shreya got an opportunity to work with Malayalam superstar Mammootty in her second film Black, she ensured she did her share of homework. “He’s a four-time National award winner and I didn’t want to make a fool of myself in front of him. I promised myself I’d come out with flying colours in the film and I did — the film celebrated 150 days!” Public appreciation though isn’t too high on her priority list. “Because along with the accolades there have also been brickbats — that I’m dark or that I’m just another glamorous face. I just told myself, ‘Let them say what they have to, I’ll show them later because my work will speak for itself,’” she says. Competition is another thing the actress is dismissive about. “There’s a lot of it but I’ve carved my own niche. Everybody’s in the race to outdo each other. I’m running my own race. Not many actresses have had the guts to do what I’ve done.” And she’s prepared for the brickbats that come with the profession, including rumours and gossip. “Luckily, people think I’m bizarre because of the work I’ve done— played a gangster, a villain, a cop, so they aren’t too interested in my otherwise boring life,” she says.