Actress Gouri G. Kishan will be seen playing a progressive urban girl in Sridevi Shoban Babu, in theaters from tomorrow (February 18). Ahead of the release of the film, the actress interacted with the local media, spoke about her debut film, and also shared some insights about the film.
Amartya Smaran
Actress Gouri G. Kishan made her debut in films with ‘96 starring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha Krishnan. Exactly two years after the success of the Tamil Version of ‘96, Gouri starred in the Telugu dubbed version titled Jaanu.
Jaanu was Gouri’s brief introduction to the Telugu audience and now she’s back to impress the filmgoers with Sridevi Shoban Babu starring alongside Santosh Sobhan. Gouri will be seen playing a progressive urban girl in Sridevi Shoban Babu which is touted to be a cute romantic drama.
Gouri never imagined she’d be an actress. Although she grew up on a staple diet of two to three films per week while growing up in Chennai, she never thought it was plausible to be a full-time actress.
“Being an actress was never a dream. It was a long shot. I’ve seen people struggle for years and still not make it big in the industry. When I heard about the ‘96 movie’s audition, my parents were very supportive. I am a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. So, they asked me to go give the audition for the experience. It was a one-year audition process. Eight months after I got into college, I got a call back saying there are four more rounds of auditions. Because of the subtle performance that the director wanted, I got through the audition and that’s how ‘96 happened,” said Gouri.
The Jaanu star couldn’t stop talking about all the love that she’d been receiving from the Telugu audience, “With Sridevi Shoban Babu, it’s extremely different from everything that I’ve done. The love that I received from the Telugu audience has been overwhelming. Although ‘96 was a Tamil film, when it was made into Jaanu, the audience showered me with all their love. I hope they’ll see a different Jaanu in Sridevi Shoban Babu. It’s a fun film and it’s an exciting beginning for me. All these years they’ve given me so much love and I think it’s my responsibility to do good content and different characters and give them back that love. Everyone is excited to see Jaanu in a new avatar and I’m excited too.”
You’d be surprised to see that Gouri compared Santosh Sobhan’s acting chops to that of legendary actor Mohanlal. Well! Sharing her experience working with Santosh Sobhan, the up-and-coming actress said, “Santosh’s unconventional choices in all his movies are so different. He’s very selective. I call him the Ayushmann Khurrana of Telugu. Santosh and I went to the same college and he passed out before I joined. We have so much in common and we immediately became good friends. He helped me a lot with the language. When you see Mohanlal on screen, you don’t feel like he’s acting. Likewise, Santosh has that effortless thing about him and I admire that. More than a co-actor, he’s become one of my closest friends in the industry.”
Gouri makes no qualms about being as real as she can on social media platforms. Talking about how she perceives social media platforms, she explained, “I’ve been given a platform and I’m using it to my best. For instance, being a journalist also, there were so many issues I felt strongly about. During the pandemic, everyone was going through mental health problems. So, I thought I should talk about this because there are people who will ask you, “You have 1 million followers and you’re not talking about it.” I realised that was a huge pressure. If you look at Hollywood actors like Ashton Kutcher, he has taken child pornography as his core issue. When I spoke to my uncle about it, he said I don’t have to feel pressured to talk about everything. He asked me to talk about things that I strongly feel about. Right now, I am trying to understand and make social media a real place.”
The Sridevi Shoban Babu actress told the media that her biggest fear is overacting. “I am very scared because I’m also a critic. Director Prasanth is usually a little over the top but what I liked about him is he didn’t ask me to do that bubbly girl thing. For this film, I had to come out of my comfort zone. I’m used to the natural subtle performances but I also enjoyed working on this film and I love watching commercial films,” wrapped Gouri.
