Even though she believes that it was destiny that she ventured into showbiz, Pooja Hegde admits that it was her own decision to work across different film industries in India. The actress, who will be seen in the pan-India film Radhe Shyam with Prabhas, believes that shuttling between various industries has rewarded her in many ways.

She says, “You get lucky when opportunity meets hard work. I always wanted to be an Indian actress — not identified by or restricted to cinema of any one language. I work on one principle — I will go where the content excites me, irrespective of language. I have never wanted to be restricted by language barriers.”

She adds, “When you work in any language, you establish a deep connection with the people who understand it. They get even more excited and respectful of you when they realise that their language is not yours, and yet, you’re making an effort to embrace it and enter their world. Irrespective of the language of a project, I dub my own portions with proper pronunciations. It was a conscious decision to work in different languages, which is paying off today. If there is a great Marathi film, I would love to do it, irrespective of the budget.”

Pooja and Prabhas started working on Radhe Shyam in 2018. It has taken four years for the film to finally hit cinemas. Pooja says, “I think more than me, you should ask the director (Radha Krishna Kumar) how it was for him. We’ve all worked on different things while this film was being made, but he has stuck to this one project for about five years — four years of getting it together and a year of prep. As for me, I was excited to play Prerna, who has so many shades and complexities. She has a strong presence in the story. In fact, if you watch the film closely, you will realise that I grew up in the process of making this film. In these four years, the experience of going from one project to another and handling a layered character like Prerna helped me mature as an artiste and as a person. There are places in the film where the evolution is evident, and that’s something I am excited to show to the world.”