Salaar actor Shruti Haasan says she is in the best phase of her life now

Shruti Haasan, who plays the female lead in Balakrishna's upcoming film with Gopichand Malineni and Chiranjeevi's next (directed by KS Ravindra Bobby), has been travelling and performing, in between her shooting commitments. In an interview with the Times of India, the actor says she keeps the ‘musician’ in her alive by performing for the audience. "Last week, I rendered Blackbird at the Beatles tribute show in Mumbai. That was my second show in the past few months. My friend Karan Parikh was a part of the tribute show, and he asked me if I’d like to sing. I’m a huge Beatles fan and I was really happy to be a part of it. It was just one song, but it’s always nice to sing with a new group of people."

Shruti is equally looking forward to restarting the shoot of the multilingual project, Salaar. Directed by Prashanth Neel of KGF fame, she's cast opposite Prabhas. The first schedule of the film began with an action sequence shot in Telangana's Godavarikhani coal mines in January.

Speaking about Salaar, which is rumoured to have Vijay Sethupathi playing the antagonist, Shruti tells that the makers had to break the schedule because the director had KGF: Chapter 2, and Prabhas had Radhe Shyam up for release. "In the meantime, I started shooting with Chiranjeevi sir in Hyderabad. I have committed to a Tamil film, too. The announcement will be made when the time is right!"

Commenting on the trend of pan-Indian films, Shruti was quoted saying in the Times of India, "My parents are pan-Indian actors. In my home, we spoke Tamil, Hindi and English. My dad (Kamal Haasan), who was born and brought up in south India, used to speak Hindi with my mum (Sarika), and my mum would speak Tamil with everyone in Chennai. When I joined the Telugu film industry, I learnt a whole new language. Dad sometimes breaks into Malayalam and Bengali. Growing up, we had people from Mumbai, and even from all over the country and outside, coming over to work on my dad’s films. I have sung in different languages even when I didn’t know those languages, like Kannada."

Besides, Shruti says she likes listening to Spanish music and hip-hop and rap. "I’d think of learning that language to know exactly what they are saying. So, I just don’t understand why we find it surprising that we are making pan-Indian films, because we are a country of multiple languages and cultures!"

When asked about Shruti's take on her recent Twitter spat between Ajay Devgn and Sudeep, she tells the Times of India, “There has been so much debate on what the national language is, what the language of communication is… I believe that we all have a choice and a right to communicate the way we want. Nobody should be told how they should communicate. There has to be an understanding and appreciation of the many cultures within the country.”

Personally, Shruti says she is in the best phase of her life now. "I’m enjoying every day and not planning. We forget today by over-planning for tomorrow, and look at the past fondly because we didn’t look at it fondly when it was our present! Instead of making it a memory that I can enjoy, I am living every day as it matters to me. I am more aware of it, especially since the pandemic when I lost my friend to COVID. It gave me perspective, that we are right here and right now and nothing matters more than the love we have in our heart, and the life and the breath we take every day," she concludes.