A bundle of talent, a trained sailor , a natural singer, actor Nidhi Subbaiah is trying to make her foothold in Bollywood. Recently in Varanasi to shoot for her second film , Direct Ishq Ho Gaya, the pretty actor is keen to be part of good cinema , cinema which ten years down the lane she is proud to be associated with.

The Gold Rush

A gold medalist in sailing, Nidhi represented her state, Karnataka twice at competitions held in Chilka Lake and Vizag. “I was the helmsman of the team. My love for sailing began in school where I joined the naval wing of NCC, that had sailing as part of the training . For two years I underwent training and even wanted to make a career out of it, but my Commanding Officer, who despite being very happy with my skills, dissuaded me, as there was no future in the sport. Issues like lack of sponsors did not make it a lucrative career choice so I had to give it up. It is unfortunate that in our country sports as a career has limited options.Only cricket for men and tennis for women are viewed as the right career choice , which should change and other sports should also be encouraged, ” she says. I shocked my parents.

Her passion for the sport ensured Nidhi admission in an Engineering college in Mysore, to pursue civil engineering, in the sports quota category. With most of my friends joining the same college, was the reason for getting myself enrolled . I dropped out of the college after the first year as I started getting modelling offers and soon some prestigious assignments came my way . This decision did not go well with my parents as they had some pre conceived notion about the entertainment industry . Being the only child of my parents, my father , a coffee planter and my mother , a lawyer, always wanted me pursue higher studies from US .This came as a shocker to them but later things changed and now they support all my efforts. While exploring possibilities on the silver screen I preferred moving to Bangalore due to it’s familiarity rather than to Mumbai which was an altogether new city for me. I started getting offers for Kannada films ,” she says.

Ajab Gazabb Love taught me patience The actor who forayed into Bollywood with Ajab Gazabb Love with Jackky Bhagnani , says that the film not doing well at BO did bother her initially . “It took me a while to get my second film but it taught me patience which I lacked earlier . I pondered over a lot of things and learned to love my craft .The reason I could shoot for a long stretch of time, even eighteen hours at a time, despite temperatures cross 45 degrees in Banaras for Direct Ishq, when some members of the crew fainted due to heat,” she says. Essaying the role of Dolly Shukla in the film, who is a theth Banarasi, Nidhi feels, that it is a coincidence that the UP connect remains even in her second film . “In Ajab Gazabb Love I portrayed a Luckhnawi girl and now a Banarasi , perhaps it has something to do with my previous birth , “she says with a laugh.

I can scream my lungs out when provoked The character of Dolly, walks in boots and is a rockstar who screams at the slightest pretext and bashes boys with ease .Some crew members were apprehensive whether I will be able to get into the skin of the character since I appear as a soft person at first glance but I told them that you did a good job by selecting me since I can yell my lungs out if provoked,” she adds mischievously.

Want to do cinema that connects with the audience Keen to work with directors like Imtiaz Ali, the actor says that it is the script and her role in the film that is vital to her . “This, along with the director I am working with, has been the criterion so far in my selection of the films. I don’t want to be typecast and wish to do the kind of cinema that connects with the audience, so the boundaries of serious or commercial cinema does not bother me, as five years from now I want to be seen as a self made girl with a space of my own in Bollywood,” she says.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India Home> Entertainment> Hindi> Bollywood / Meera Vohra, TNN / August 05th, 2014

Kavery Nambisan’s poised surgical fingers cut through the heart of rural India in her charming seventh novel, A Town Like Ours. Yes, you read that right. When most people struggle with writing one book (full time), Nambisan has deftly churned out little more than half a dozen books while juggling her day job as a surgeon. If that doesn’t make you envious, then perhaps this will: her last book The Story That Must Not Be Told was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and the DSC Prize.

In her latest offering, A Town Like Ours, you get the feeling that Nambisan has been mulling over the idea for years—lodged in her subconscious—before writing it all down in one swift sweep. It is a quiet book with an assured, elegant voice. Set in the fictional small town of Pingakshipura, the novel’s narrator is Rajakumari, a retired whore past her prime, who at one time serviced everyone and the local temple priest. This is a town where water runs black—all thanks to the temple priest—and every child’s head is white. Poignant and aching in parts, Nambisan’s motley crew of characters weave a story of love and loss and the desire to succeed in a ferocious world.

There is Saroja and Sampathu who flee a murder most morbid only to land up in Pingakshipura and raise Gundumani and Rukmini (Rukma) in a battered old taxi. No matter how odd this may seem, the two hold onto this semblance of a home. Then there is Gundumani, the boy with the crooked leg, whose can’t seem to understand his love for the woman whom he has treated as his sister, until well…let’s leave that for you to discover. Then there is Lectric Manu, who is a little too keen on Saroja; Kripa and Manohar, the childless couple who discover something unusual about each other after years of marriage.

A Town Like Ours is a sad tale that negotiates all those uncomfortable emotions gurgling underneath. Here is a little sampling of Rajakumari’s thoughts: ‘The very pith of marriage is carnal, you will do it with your husband or wife and no other. The manliness and womanliness with which couples accept this situation while attempting to imitate happiness is enough to make me weep. So it begins, this wedded happiness which is sometimes also a curse. Couples tire of each other’s bodies without realising it. They proceed to make children who grow up and go to school, the bidi factory or brothel, they live normal lives while their vague disenchantment cooks away and bounces off the walls of their cage like tired moths that slowly-slowly wither to dust.’

The writing is measured and the story unravels itself beautifully as you nudge each page. Nambisan’s book is a slow, lilting little gem that is ought to be relished on a long, monsoon-dappled train journey.

A Town Like Ours
By: Kavery Nambisan
Pages: 256 / Price: Rs 395 / Publisher: Aleph Book Company

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> LifeStyle> Books / by Supriya David / August 10th, 2014