My only regret is that I don’t have scenes with Sudeep in Kotigobba 3: Abhirami

After years of living abroad, Malayalam actress Abhirami has made Bengaluru home and is currently on her sixth Kannada film, the Kiccha Sudeep-starrer Kotigobba 3, which releases on October 14. Speaking in fairly fluent Kannada, the actress spoke to the media recently about her role in the film. “I am not at liberty to reveal too much about the character, because there is a suspense element to it, but suffice to say that it is lovely, strong, confident and very relatable role even though it has limited screen time. This is the kind of character that you wish is done more often in cinema. I worked on the film only for about a week. Kotigobba 3 is a mass masala kind of film, but my story arc has a completely different feel to it. That’s what excited me and I believe that my character works like an anchor for the story. The beauty of it is that I have not only got a nice song, but action sequences as well. But since it is a character that only appears in flashbacks, I do not have any scenes with Sudeep and that is the only drawback. Other than that, this is a role that I enjoyed a lot while doing,” says the actress, adding that the team even allowed her to dub for herself, despite her limitations with the language, which she found exciting.

Interestingly enough, despite being ‘co-stars’ Abhirami adds that she is yet to meet Sudeep and has not even spoken to him on the phone, with all their communications routed through other team members. “In my career so far, I have worked with almost all the big kannada stars, be it Darshan, Upendra, Shivarajkumar, Ravichandran and now, even though I am in a Sudeep film, I have missed out on the opportunity to work with him,” she adds.

The actress adds that although the film is director Shivakarthik’s debut, she never once felt like she was working with a newcomer. “Looking at his work ethic, the way he planned and executed every single bit of this film, it never felt like this was his first film. He actually came across like an experienced director. Kotigobba 3 is a film that took a while in the making and for a new filmmaker that can be worrisome, wondering if your efforts will make it to the screen or not. He never let go of his positive frame of mind and now the film is ready for its date with audiences,” she signs off.