Amrita rao makes Tollywood debut in Athithi

An excited Amrita Rao is keeping her fingers crossed for the release of her first Telugu film Atithi where she plays a college girl living life on her terms. The actress says when director Surender Reddy approached her for the film, she couldn't say no as she was getting the opportunity to be in a film where the heroine's role was as significant as the hero's part. This is not common, according to her, in the otherwise male dominated Telugu film industry. Another reason for saying yes could be that it was her leading man Mahesh Babu's sister Manjula who introduced the actress to people from the industry. But Amrita claims, "I saw Mahesh's films even before I ventured into Tollywood and I was impressed with his acting skills."

For someone who doesn't understand Telugu, it must have been a tough job to impress her co-star and director? "Though I could not understand Telugu and was a little apprehensive about this, my co-actors and director made sure that I understood every sentence I uttered before the camera. I used to sit down with the assistant directors and get my pronunciation right," she says.

Actresses who are a flop in Bollywood usually land up in the South Indian film industry and often get very popular here. What were Amrita's reasons for doing regional cinema when she still has offers from Bollywood in her kitty? "It's destiny because this film was offered to me when all my other projects had been postponed. I am getting many offers from Tollywood now and I'll be happy to work for another project," she says. Amrita was in town for nearly two months while shooting for Atithi and says she has taken a liking to the city and enjoys eating curd rice with a spicy tadka.

Does this mean she loves working here and has no complaints? "The only difference between Bollywood and Telugu films is that here, I had early morning calls for shooting everyday. By the end of the day I used to be really tired."

The actress doesn't find much difference between SRK who is the king of Bollywood and Mahesh Babu, as Mahesh too finishes his shot in a single take, just like SRK.

It's a good thing she likes the city as she is back shooting for Shyam Benegal's next movie.