Avika Gor: I will always be grateful to the south film fraternity for making me part of the industry
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Avika Gor: I will always be grateful to the south film fraternity for making me part of the industry
* Reporter
After a flourishing career in television, actress Avika Gor made a swift shift to the south industry. The actress, who will soon be seen in the films Thank You alongside Naga Chaitanya and 10th class Diaries, says that she will always be grateful for how she was welcomed down south.
"I have done a lot of Telugu movies but there is still a lot of nervousness because I don't speak Telugu unfortunately. But, at the same time, I feel a lot of comfort in the sense of how people have accepted me in the industry with open arms. They made me part of their industry. The producers, directors with whom I have worked, the actors and all my co-stars have become very close to me and are my friends. I think the warmth that I feel in the Telugu industry is very special. I will always be grateful to the south film fraternity for making me part of the industry,” she says.
Talking about the few challenges she faced, Avika says, “I think the only issue that I face during shooting for a regional film is the language barrier. But I think with time, I have started to feel a little more comfortable with it by remembering a little bit about how my expression should be for a certain dialogue and rehearsing it multiple times. Hard work definitely pays but this is the only thing that bothers me sometimes because I become a little nervous. But other than that, everything is so perfect because you know how the regional cinema has a lot of good content, good characters, a lot of dancing, a lot of acting performances. As an actor, it's always amazing to get to do so much with every character that I do. I am pretty much satisfied and happy with how my career is going in the south film industry.”
Avika, who will soon be making her Bollywood debut as well, says that she always planned her career this way. “I did south films because I wanted some experience of doing something with different characters for a few months, making a lot of movies and understanding how movies are made. That's the reason I started doing south after TV and I think doing south after TV made me a bigger star in the South industry. So, it did help me in my career. After South, obviously, coming into Bollywood has not really become easier but there’s a lot of value attached to my debut because of the experience. I think that matters to me a lot,” she says.
She adds, “This was how I planned it. I wanted to do South films first and then Bollywood. And I am glad that I did that because it gave me a lot of good experiences and helped me realise where I am and all that I should be grateful for. I do not take anything for granted and I feel really proud of myself for doing this.”
In fact, the actress adds that her TV experience has gone a long way. “TV experience does help you in the regional cinema space because on TV, you get scripts just one hour or maybe even just 10 mins before the shoot. Here, it's a different language altogether and you have to learn things. You have to adapt to a lot of new things. You need to be open to doing that comfortably. That is what TV did for me. Other than that, I think the popularity that I had because of TV helped me get good quality work. I got good and big movies in Telugu because people had already seen me as somebody who is a star. That helped me because I didn't start my career in the south as a new, fresh face. People already knew me. so that definitely helped me to reach a level that I wanted,” she says.
