An Exclusive Interview With Gazala

Gazala, is today a shining star. Whose first hit was Student No 1 with Jr N.T.R.

Can you tell us how you entered films...
In January of 2000 I got my protfolio done and I got a couple of advertisement offers and after a couple of months I got the offer for "Student No. 1" and "Naalo vunna prema". Thats it, after that offers kept coming.

Were you interested in acting from your childhood...
No! Not at all. I never thought what I will do. After I did my twelfth class, though I didn't want to study further, I joined first year of college. I quit college after two/three months as I was not interested in studies. Just out of luck, I did my portfolio and started getting offers for couple of ads. Then, got offers in movies and just started acting.

Did you specifically try for telugu films...
No! Actually the producers and directors came to bombay looking for new faces and they saw my photographs, liked them and came down and talked to me about the film. Infact I met Raghavendra Rao sir and producers of "Naalo Vunna Prema" on the same day. I was lucky and next day I came to know that both of them selected me.

You have already done almost 8 films in Telugu. How do you feel here...Are you comfortable acting in telugu films.
Ofcourse! I feel very comfortable over here because people over here are very good and very cooperative. The work here gets done very fast. Since last one and half year I have been doing Telugu films, so its easy for me to pickup the language now. I understand 60% what people talk in Telugu. Coming to speaking Telugu...I can break the words and I can talk but I can't make a perfect statement. But, I am learning. I keep talking to my staff, basically I am a fun loving girl so, when I am in a very good mood...I just keep talking to them in Telugu whatever comes out of my mouth. I think thats the way you can learn a language when you talk to people. As far as my work here...My first film Naalo Vunna Prema didn't do well. After two weeks of its release Student No 1 was released and it was well recieved. It was hand of Raghavendra Rao sir. Then, I worked with another senior director B.Gopal for Allari Ramudu and it was a good experience. I have yet to learn a lot. Currently I working with Dasari Narayana Rao sir for Fools movie. He is an amazing director...the way he does the modulation of dialogues and everything. When I work with senior directors I get to learn a lot from them.

Who are your favourite heroines?
I have yet to learn a lot. Currently I working with Dasari Narayana Rao sir for Fools movie. He is an amazing director...the way he does the modulation of dialogues and everything. When I work with senior directors I get to learn a lot from them.

Do you have a habit of reading books
I hate reading books. Reading magazines is a different thing but if you ask me about novels and other books no I don't read them. I used to like Archies comics but, now I don't read any books.

Who are your favourite artists in hindi?
Amitab is my all time favourite actor. Actresses - I like Kajol, Rani Mukherjee and Priety Zinta. Kajol I like her because she is an amazing actress.

In telugu...
I like Chiranjeevi and Simran.

Tell us about your food habits
I am a pure no vegeterian (smiles). I like anything fried especially chicken and mutton. If you ask me to name a dish I would say chicken biryani is my favourite.

Tell us about your family.
I am from a muslim family from Mumbai. My father works for defence in Muscat. We also have construction bussiness in Muscat which my brothers take care off.

Any memorable/unforgettable moments while shooting for films...
Each of my movies...I can't forget them as I enjoyed doing all of them. Unforgettable... I would the first I faced the camera for a film. Shooting for an advertisement was different than for a movie. When you do ads you just have a crowd of 30 or 40 people but, with a film you have a huge crowd watching you do the shot. On my first day of shooting we were doing a marriage scene and there were so many artists in the shot and I had two lines to say...I was so scared I didn't know ABCD in telugu...after that shot I have never again felt that nervousness again before the camera.

Generally, when people come to the industry, they set some goal, target. Do you have any?
My target is not like I have to defeat someone. My main goal is that I want to be a good actress. If I go back from here, people should say yeah, she did a great job while here. She did good movies, her acting was good. I want my work to be appreciated. That is the most important to me. I don't believe in the number games, the top position comes and goes according to the success and failure of your movies. But, the main thing is that people should appreciate your work. I have to be a successful actress when I go from here. I don't have a role model to acheive this. I want to do what I can do and how I can do the natural way that I can do. I don't have aims like I want to be like this woman or somebody else, I want to be natural...I want to be my own.

What are your current projects.
Right now I am doing Dasari Narayana Rao's Fools. I have couple of other movies. In tamil I have done two tamil movies and I have signed one new film. One of the films that I did was the remake of Narasimha Naidu with Arjun and the other one was University with a new hero. The new movie that I have signed is also with Arjun - the film is Sarvadhikari, this might start in february.

Do you have any plans to do films which are heroine oriented.
Ofcourse, I would love to do it. Becuase, with a heroine oriented movie you get a 100% chance for performance. I am confident that if the director is good I will be able to do it. I can give it my best. The most important person for a movie is the director. Director, is the person who will be capable of extracting what he wants performance wise from the artist. Director should know what he wants...so with a good director, I am pretty confident that I will be able to do a heroine oriented subject.

Were you satisfied with your role in Allari Ramudu
Yeah! I knew this question was gonna come up (all smiles). First of all B.Gopal sir was the director. I always wanted to work with him. Next, my character was of a village girl which I have never done till then. From the eight films that I have done till now, seven of them are modern characters. So, it was a different one, that I have not done before, a character of an innocent girl and she is so much in love with her Bava that she doesn't know whats happening. More important for me it was a village character. I enjoyed doing that character a lot and it came naturally. B.Gopal sir was almost laughing when I did the scenes with the snake in the film. The character is so innocent is that she talks to the snake she prays to. It was different and I really enjoyed doing it.

What are you opinions about exposing in films
As far as I am concerned...I only wear what I am comfortable in and the kind of constumes I use are generally what teenagers are opting for in the real world.