Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; January 14, 2020)

One of the most popular names in south cinema, actor Ramya Krishnan has to her credit films spanning five languages — Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam. Her biggest project till date happens to be the one which broke the barriers between regional and Hindi cinema — Baahubali.

However, after Bade Miyan Chote Miyan in 1998, Ramya wasn’t seen in any Hindi film. “I didn’t work in Hindi films because the ones I had done previously didn’t do well. I worked with the best of directors, but the films didn’t do as well as we expected them to. I didn’t get my success. But Baahubali did what Bollywood couldn’t do for me,” says the 49-year old, who was seen in the web series Queen recently.

What surprised everyone is the fact that she was cast as Prabhas’ mother in the franchise, who is just nine years younger to her. Ramya says that this did not bother her at all after going through the script. “There were no apprehensions after I heard the script,” says the actor. As for age discrimination against women in Bollywood, Ramya believes that things are not the same anymore. “I think times are changing, and all that doesn’t exist anymore. It also depends on the roles you get and the kind of films you do. That extends your shelf life,” she says. The actor says that female actors get more screen time now. “Earlier, women just had to be a subordinate, the love interest, running around trees, singing songs. It has actually grown beyond that,” says Ramya whose film choices have been very surprising. She decided to follow up a blockbuster like Baahubali with Super Deluxe (2019), a critically-acclaimed non-masala film. “I choose from what comes to me. Luckily, I get diverse roles, thank God for that,” she says.

Her web series went on air recently, in which she plays a politician. Some believe the character is inspired by the late politician Jayalalithaa. Ramya clarifies, “It is actually not so. It’s inspired by a book called Queen by Anita Sivakumaran. If you find similarities, that’s just incidental. I won’t deny that, but it is not a biopic for sure,” says the actor.