Exclusive! Selfie Mummy Google Daddy takes a close look at modern-day parenting and gadget dependency: Meghana Raj Sarja

When Meghana Raj Sarja first got a narration for a role in Selfie Mummy Google Daddy, she was quite kicked about the subject, but not so much about playing a mother. “This film came to me way before I became a mother. At the time, although I liked the story, I was apprehensive about playing a mother onscreen because of how one tends to get typecast in cinema. Once you are called mom onscreen, everyone’s image about you changes. It was Chiru (Meghana’s late husband Chiranjeevi Sarja) who told me that I should go ahead and do the film. While that was the clincher, I also reckoned that my co-star Srujan Lokesh, whom I have known for long, would come home and strangle me (in jest), if I rejected one more film with him,” laughs Meghana.

The actress adds that Srujan and Chiru then sat her down and explained why she should be a part of the project. “Chiru said that I should forget that I am playing a mother and look at the larger picture. He thought this was a film worth looking forward to. After a lot of thought I went ahead with the film. Now that I am a mother in real life, I think the release time is apt,” she says.

In the trailer, Meghana’s character is seen as this selfie-obsessed mother, while Srujan as the father, is the one who relies on google for anything. Their two kids, in turn, are massively addicted to gadgets, and find ways to access them even when the parents try to keep them away.

“Selfie Mummy Google Daddy’s main plot line is about how children are addicted to gadgets and technology, even when they have the time to go out and explores the reason why they end up with so much screen time, instead of playing with friends or the parents even. But the film also looks at modern-day parenting, where the elders in the family are always on gadgets, not by choice, but more like a default setting because your work is on your phone/laptop. And when it is not work, gadgets are still the go-to for everything in the household, be it buying groceries online, paying electricity/water bills, ordering food, or just randomly shop for clothes, accessories, etc. Often, we reach out to our gadgets because it is the simpler and faster way to get things done. Children learn from what they see around them and if the elders are always on gadgets, why wouldn’t the young ones?” asks Meghana. The actress adds that her character is a representation of several women, for whom social media is the next best thing to a companion. “I felt that this character is very relatable to everyone. She is social media and selfie obsessed, even though she is a working woman,” she says.

The film, though, is coming at a time when barring a few star-driven projects, content-oriented movies continue to struggle to find takers. “The films that have been doing well at the box office are the ones without content because the bigger stars prefer to stick to formula. Content-based films are being made by relatively smaller teams and they don’t find audiences. There is content, but who is doing it matters,” reckons Meghana, adding that she hopes that audiences will look beyond star power and give due credit to the content they are bringing to the table.

While Selfie Mummy Google Daddy is a film that Meghana completed well before the pandemic struck, she announced her comeback film, after the loss of her husband and maternity break, last October, with a project to be produced by Pannaga Bharana. “That is yet to take off, but what I have started is a film with Kantha Kannalli, the director of my earlier film Iruvudellava Bittu. We are currently on a schedule break, as we are waiting for Atul Kulkarni to join the set. Pannaga’s film will take off probably by the end of May; it got delayed because there were some changes to the script. In the meantime, I am also busy judging a dance reality and, of course, with taking care of my little one, Raayan,” she signs off.