‘My crown is full of thorns’

From television to trying her luck in Tollywood and back to the small screen, life is coming a full circle for anchor-turned-starlet Sri Reddy Mallidi, who turns 26 on Friday, a day of the week that is normally earmarked for a film’s release.

Her birthday resolve is firm when she asserts, ‘I am reinventing my career to make a mark in what I like doing best, which is anchoring shows that help me interact with the viewers directly’. Right now, as the face of the popular prime time show, Patala Bhairavi, she is contended as ‘my career is steadily falling in place.’

A friend suggested during the early days of electronic media that her true calling was elsewhere as she had the ‘looks and screen presence’. This advice has had a major impact on her mindset, although the family back home in Vijayawada opposed her entering tinsel town.

“At that point, a friend of mine, Prathyusha, exhorted me to listen to my heart and take the call”, she recalls as a thanksgiving gesture. Having convinced herself that she was set for a career facing the camera even while pursuing her graduation, Sri Reddy has had a chequered career since taking off as a newsreader in a Telugu news channel.

Talking about her present assignment and her own involvement in it, she says, “I love anchoring and interacting with people. The show is providing me that platform. I started my career as a newsreader and hence, anchoring is and will always be in my first love.

During those days, people noticed me on screen and this is how I got offers for movies.” However, disappointment greeted her when she forayed into Tollywood and donned the grease paint for three films, ‘Nenu Nanna Abadham’, ‘Arvind2’ and the yet-to-be-released ‘Zindagi’.

Disillusioned but wiser by the experience, Sri Reddy points out, “In Telugu film industry, the chances are tough and it gets difficult to survive. Actually, the environment was a bit tough on me. I took a break and went abroad, as the offers which were coming were not exactly to my liking.

And, then, like a stroke of good luck, Patala Bhairavi happened and turned into a game-changer for me. In the industry, there are very few people who will encourage or promote talent. In retrospection I am glad to be part of Patala Bhairavi, where I get a chance to explore and prove myself,” she quips.

By Meenakshi Sengupta