In a career spanning over 15 years, she has done only two Hindi films — Akira (2016) Julie 2 (2017) — so far, but actor Raai Laxmi seems to be content with the way her career is shaping up in the regional film industries. She has worked in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films over the years and she feels that the evolution of cinema in these film industries has been rather astounding.

Talking particularly about Kannada cinema, which she started off with Valmiki (2005), the actor says, “The Kannada film industry has undergone a massive change. From where I had started to today, when I look at it, it is at a different place altogether. They are really making some big films and after KGF (2018), it now has a pan-India appeal.”

The actor, who is born and brought up in Bengaluru, says that earlier Kannada films would not even get dubbed in other languages. “But now, even they have come into that category. Initially, it was only for Kannada audience, but now the industry is making films that can be watched by others with dubbing and subtitles,” she shares.

Recalling the time when she started in the Sandalwood industry, the 31-year-old says it is heartening to see the graph of Kannada cinema, and she would love to do more films in the language.

“Though I don’t get a lot of time to do Kannada films, the best part is that when I do films in any other language, it gets dubbed in Kannada. Also, my career here has been great as I have worked with all top actors — Darshan, Shiva Rajkumar, Upendra. It is one industry that I can come back to whenever I want,” explains the actor.

Laxmi is already gearing up for her next Kannada project, Jhansi I.P.S, which she says is going to be monumental in her career as it is for the first time that she has dabbled with the action genre.

“I am just eagerly waiting to see how it turns out. I was really in two minds about the film. A lot of people had told me to do an action film and I finally got a good script. I have trained very hard for it. I didn’t have the confidence before to do an action film because you have to be very fit and have a physique and personality as well. But I finally attained that,” she concludes.