Bhoomika Back

Post her wedding with yoga guru Bharat Thakur, Bhoomika was on a five-month break, which she ended by starting to shoot for Malle Poovu, directed by Samudra. “For the first three hours on the sets, I was unsettled. I looked into the mirror and asked myself what I was doing here. Coming back from a vacation, I find myself waiting for the last day of the shoot so that I can go on another holiday,” she laughs, sipping a hot cup of chai at her residence later that evening.

The unmistakeable after-wedding glow lingers on even as she talks about her recent releases –– Anasuya and Swagatham. “I signed these films around the same time. It was a conscious decision to do a strong role (Anasuya) on one side and an entertainer (Swagatham) on the other to avoid getting slotted into the so-called woman-centric films,” she says. Bhoomika hates films being branded as women-centric. “When a film is based on the hero, no one says it’s a male-centric film. We can do without stereotyped classification.”

Basking in the critical acclaim she’s received for Anasuya, she recalls being sceptical about the project. “My blind faith took me forward.” The task was easier, she says, since Ravi Babu was meticulous. “He was sure of what he wanted. He’d tell me if a crime reporter would be brisk or chilled out in a given situation and how his/her feet would move.”

She will again be doing a balancing act with Malle Poovu and an untitled thriller with Srikanth. “Both these films will also release around the same time. Again I’ll have one offbeat film and a mainstream entertainer,” she says. There’s also a thriller directed by E. Niwas in the pipeline. Called 90 minutes, the story unfolds in 90 minutes “There are different ways in which I select my films,” she explains. “I am instinctive. If I don’t want to do a film I find better ways to say it. I can get into a bad mess in my head if I accept something I’m not convinced about. I’d accept a film that has a reasonable script if it’s backed by a good director. Thirdly, if the team is good and the film is unusual, I don’t mind doing a shorter role.” A case in point for the last instance is Gandhi My Father. “Films like these don’t get made every year,” she says.

Reflecting on her career, she says, “I’ve done 30 films and I’m happy. A lot of people told me I could have made it really big after Tere Naam. I can’t run too hard to stay in the race.” Prod her if she shied away from the rat race in Bollywood since it demands a high glamour quotient and she agrees. “How long can you live from one Friday to another worrying about what clothes to wear or take off? It isn’t like I resigned to doing less work. Mujhe zyaada kaam karna hi nahi hai. Even when I am shooting, I think of playing a game on playstation.”

Marriage, she says, hasn’t changed things. “People have been kind to me. I think directors don’t want to lose good talent.” At home, though, she’s enjoying her new role. “Looking back, it’s funny. When I joined Bharat’s yoga classes, it took me a month to break the ice and speak to him. My only intention was to learn yoga,” she laughs.