Iswarya Menon: Spy helped me gain insights into RAW, the unnoticed sacrifices of spies for the nation

Iswarya Menon, whose career took off with Balaji Mohan’s bilingual Love Failure, is kickstarting her Telugu innings with a pan-Indian release - Spy. The action thriller, headlined by Nikhil Siddhartha, also starring Sanya Thakur, Abhinav Gomatam, Aryan Rajesh, releases across five languages on June 29. Ahead of the film’s release, the actress spoke to the media in Hyderabad.

“I consider this my first Telugu film and I couldn’t have asked for a better debut. Garry BH signed me as the female lead the day this film was locked. He narrated the story and I was genuinely thrilled. I have an intense role and I had no reason to say no and came on board immediately. It’s an exciting action thriller that’ll be liked by audiences across all age groups,” she says.

The actress shares her role in Spy will have many dimensions - the action, stunts will be top notch and a lot of effort went into showcasing the life of spy on screen. She underwent gun-training for over six months. “I genuinely experienced adrenaline rush on sets. I learnt about RAW, the sacrifices of the agents to serve the nation. I’m quite confident about pulling off action films henceforth. There’s a scope for Spy 2 as well; I hope I’ll be considered for that too.”

With Spy being her first action film, the Vezham girl worked a lot on her body language and mannerisms and little nuances that contribute to a spy’s personality. “I wanted to keep it as realistic as possible; it was challenging.” Calling Nikhil a brilliant performer, a positive and energetic person off sets, Iswarya says she was very aware of the Happy Days star’s career graph since his beginning years.

Spy will also have an appealing music score and foot-tapping songs by Sricharan Pakala and Vishal Chandrashekhar, she assures. Iswarya has many dream roles in mind for her future projects. “I want to do something on the lines of Alia Bhatt’s role in Highway and associate with credible actors.” She’ll be seen opposite Kartikeya Gummakonda for a film to be produced by UV Creations.

“I’m very satisfied about my journey in the industry. I finished my engineering and never thought I had it in me to be a film heroine. I did several ads in my early years and took careful steps to reach wherever I’m today. I’m happy about how far I’ve come,” she signs off.