Actress Flora Saini, who is currently seen in the Rana and Venkatesh Daggubati-starrer Rana Naidu, opens up in an exclusive chat with The Pioneer about her character, similarities between working with Rana and Venky, working with the OG Nandamuri Balakrishna, and more.
K. Ramya Sree
The Netflix series Rana Naidu has been the talk of the town for quite a while now. We get to see Rana and Venkatesh Daggubati in never-before-seen avatars, and they have not only grabbed the industry’s attention but also the audience’s with their performance.
While every other actor excelled in the show, there is one actress, who is gaining immense popularity and receiving love from all corners for her act in this Indian adaptation of the English original Ray Donovan. She is none other than our very own ‘Lux Papa’ a.k.a. Flora Saini, well known among the Telugu audience as Asha Saini.
Flora has reunited with Venkatesh after almost 21 years. She was seen as Asha in the 2001 Venkatesh starrer Nuvvu Naku Nachav, and her role in the film made Flora one of us.
The actress told The Pioneer exclusively that she considers herself fortunate to have been cast in the film. Also, she informed us that it was the producer of that film who changed her name from Flora to Asha to gain the Telugu audience’s attention.
Speaking of Rana Naidu, Flora plays Kavya, a strong headed woman and she also confessed that her character is completely opposite to what she is in real life. “I play a strong headed woman, who when walks into a room, everyone becomes attentive.
In real life, I am nowhere close to her. Kavya is someone who lives life on her
own terms. She is not a people’s pleaser, she goes to any extent if she desires to own something. Since I do not relate to Kavya in real life, it was difficult for me to make Kavya look as organic as possible on screen. However, I enjoyed how strong women are portrayed in the series and Kavya is one among them, so this character remains very special to me.”
Although Flora doesn’t have any combination scenes with Venkatesh, she did a few scenes with Rana and the actress informed us that she found many similarities between Venkatesh and Rana.
“Rana was just like Venkatesh sir, ofcourse they belong to the same family. Shooting with Rana felt like I was shooting with Venkatesh sir.”The Narasimha Naidu actress also confessed that she can’t wait to make a comeback to Tollywood.
“Tollywood is very special to me. I made my film debut with Tollywood. That made me who I am, and now with Rana Naidu, I am happy I am getting a bit closer to the Telugu audience after a really long time.”
Speaking of Tollywood, the actress also shared one of her most memorable moments from Tollywood and that was while shooting for Narasimha Naidu with Nandamuri Balakrishna. Teluguites surely know the craze Narasimha Naidu and the special song in the film gave to Flora.
She shared, “Balakrishna sir and I were shooting for a song in which Balakrishna sir had to dance and throw his hat in the air and that should come and land on his head and all this should happen while he is dancing and moving. When the choreographer said this, I found it impossible for any person to do and cut to the scene, without any rehearsal just in two takes Balakrishna sir got the move right. I was only staring at him. I was extremely shocked by his talent and his work.”
She shares more memories with Balakrishna, and recalling one of them, she said, “Balakrishna sir is very talkative. When we are on sets, he will continuously talk, and as soon as the director says action, he will go say his lines and come back, and there I was sitting and memorizing my dialogues and forgetting them as Balakrishna sir would talk a lot (she laughed).”
On the other hand, rumours are rife that Flora will be going inside the Hindi Bigg Boss house, and how can we not ask her and give you the actual details about it?
When asked about her Bigg Boss debut, the actress said, “I was approached by both Telugu and Hindi Bigg Boss shows for the coming seasons. However, I feel I am someone who cannot survive in that house. I can’t argue or fight like others do, and moreover, I am very attached to my mother; I can’t stay away from her.
So I guess I will not be going this year; however, it is my dream to go inside the house, and I am fine if I get evicted within a week. I just want to experience that house, because why not!”
On the work front, Flora has recently shot for Khichdi 2. Apart from that, she has Kajol’s The Good Wife, City of Dreams Season 3, and two series for MX Player in the pipeline.
