Nishad Neelambaran (HINDUSTAN TIMES; July 2, 2020)

For actor Tamannaah Bhatia, the Coronavirus lockdown has been her first “chance in the last 15 years to be at home for long”. And though it was all good in the first month, she soon started missing going to work.

In the last two weeks, some of the filmmakers have opened their offices with 10% staff, as per government guidelines. So, is she looking forward to begin shooting? “I think it will take another couple months to get back to regular shooting. Especially in the bigger films, where you need a lot of people in the background. I don’t see anything starting off immediately,” says Bhatia.

Talking about her lockdown routine, the actor, 30, shares, “I have been mostly doing a lot of household work, which I am really glad to have got a chance to do. I used to live like a paying guest in my house, as I used to come home for like two days and then pack and leave for another shoot. Now, I have had the time to declutter. Besides, I tried my hands at cooking and discovered that I enjoy it.”

Bhatia, who’s always vocal about her opinion, shares her stance on nepotism. She says, “Nepotism is there in the industry and there’s no two ways about it. But it is there in every profession. This cannot be the reason for not doing well in life. I didn’t know anything about the south Indian film industry when I started. For me, what stood out was just merit and talent. The recent crop of actors like Ayushmann Khurrana and Kartik Aaryan have also had their own journey... If their work is good, people will like them.”