Nishanti - Actor by accident - TeluguPeople.com News

Hyderabad: Nishanthi Evani isn't one of those girls who came to Tollywood with dreams about becoming a star. Instead she dreamt of becoming a director. She became an actress by chance, but still thinks she is suited to doing work behind the camera.

Born and raised in Chennai, Nishanthi was a movie buff and dreams of becoming a director someday. 'I worked as the creative director for a Hyderabad-based advertising agency. I really enjoyed making ad-films and short films and realised that making films is where my heart lay,' she says.

She studied filmmaking at the Xavier's Institute, Mumbai, and went on to do an additional course in cinematography and editing at the Digital Academy.

She worked as an assistant director for over five years, and has assisted the likes of Nagesh Kukunoor in Iqbal and director Prakash Kovelamudi's national-award winning film, Belly full of Dreams and a few films with director Suresh Krishna.

Call it a quirk of fate or coincidence that she became an actress. 'It just happened by chance. I was working on a short film with Digiquest, who were helping out director Praveen Satru with the casting for LBW. They were looking for an actress who could speak Telugu and as it turned out I ended up playing the lead in film,' she says.

Nishanthi admits that acting is a tough job. 'No matter how good a job a director does, it is the actor who carries the film on the screen. It is not an easy job to go out of your comfort zone and do the things you wouldn't do normally, knowing that the camera will capture you with all your faults, for the world to see,' she explains.

A coming-of-age romantic comedy, LBW was critically acclaimed and so was her acting, but Nishanthi wasn't exactly pleased with her performance. 'I felt I was a little too self-conscious. I think I could have done a much better job,' she says. It probably helped the cause, as she was playing an introvert with a strong sense of right and wrong.

'It came as a shocker to me when I heard people say I acted well,' she says adding, 'The first couple of times I saw the film I could only find faults with my performances. Perhaps it helped that the character was very close to what I am like in real life as well. But it felt nice to be appreciated.'

Perhaps that's the wannabe director in her speaking. But then cinema was a part of dinner table conversations at home, which she believes shaped her understanding of it. Her father, ES Murthy is a renowned song writer and music director. He has written over 200 songs for Tollywood and has also composed music for numerous films in both Telugu and Tamil.

'My first lessons in film appreciation came from my father who would critically analyse films getting into the details about why a scene was shot in a particular way, so on and so forth. That sort of shaped my outlook towards cinema from a very early age,' she shares.

Nishanthi is currently meeting producers with her own script. 'I have written a script and I am meeting producers. It is a romantic comedy and hopefully I will be directing the film soon,' she says adding, 'I want to make a mark for myself as a director of reckoning.'

The actress describes herself as an introvert. 'I take a bit of time to open up to people,' she says. But this is an industry that thrives on networking, doesn't it? 'Well, over the years I have found a way to deal with that,' she says.

A home-body, she prefers to spend most of her time watching films on DVD. Reading and travelling are also among her favourite pastimes. 'I have practically seen all the cities in India. I love going to new places and discovering their cultures,' she says.

As far as her long-term plans are concerned it isn't just cinema that's on her mind. 'I would obviously also want to get married and settle down some time,' she says smiling.