Lasyapriya Sundaram (BOMBAY TIMES; October 20, 2018)

Shruti Haasan was last seen in Behen Hogi Teri with Rajkummar Rao and she is currently shooting for Mahesh Manjrekar’s untitled gangster saga opposite Vidyut Jammwal. Talking about the director, Shruti shares, “I have always been a fan of Mahesh Manjrekar’s work. I like the way he tells his stories. He manages to focus on aspects of human beings and of society, which we don’t often see in cinema. I chose to do his film because I have a solid role. Women always have a strong role to play in our lives. It could be our mother, our domestic help, a wife, a daughter but in the movies, women are sometimes relegated to being junior artistes. Often, films don’t make them an essential part of the narrative. In Mahesh Manjrekar’s films, women find their way into a realistic story in the most convincing way.”

While the actress has managed to strike a balance between Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films, she is someone who isn’t seen letting her hair down with her colleagues form the industry. Shruti reveals, “In the beginning, like everybody else, I was trying to find my feet and trying to figure out where I fit in. I think that was a mistake and now, I revel in the fact that I am truly a unique artistic spirit and have my own way of showing it. One of the ways I don’t show it is through socialising because I am extremely bad at it. I am very bad at schmoozing and I’m not overtly charming in social situations. Yes, I am an industry insider because of my parents, but they too don’t socialise too often. They have gone off the beaten path and done what they want. They are not at all concerned about being popular. Also, what I have realised is that life really is like being in high school. Then you have to choose if you are okay being the weird kid with a hoodie, who is sketching in the back of the classroom, and yes I am okay being that kid (laughs!). There are probably only one or two people in the business who I actually talk to.”