Keerthy Suresh: 'I'm A Rebel In The Family, Don't Take Advice From Anyone'

 

Acclaimed Indian actress Keerthy Suresh agreed to star in the upcoming period crime-thriller Netflix series Akka because she was immediately drawn to “its unique, never-seen-before world and the rare premise of a conflict between two women in a matriarchal society”. Praising director Dharmaraj Shetty's vision and narrative of powerful women leading criminal houses in the fictional kingdom of Pernuru offered a fresh and layered script, she tells ETV Bharat, “We have been on this project for about three years, this whole world is so exciting and the major takeaway for me is the character Bhavani, the person she is, and who wants to say ‘No’ to the role of a gangster.”

“Secondly”, Suresh furthers, “It is not just a gangster but playing a royal gangster because my character comes from a very royal background, from the family of queens, it is a completely different approach to being a gangster, it is not the guns and smokes that you usually see in gangster movies. She is someone who makes a lot of people under her work, it is just like how you are the last person to probably get into a war field if you are a king or a queen. I was convinced to join the project after hearing the first episode.”

 

Suresh, who predominantly works in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam cinema. won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the legendary actress Savitri in the 2018 Telugu biographical drama Mahanati. She has starred in some of the top-grossing films like Sarkar (2018), Dasara (2023), Sarkaru Vaari Paata (2022), Remo (2016), and Nenu Sailaja (2016).

Although Suresh has had other Hindi-language exposure, she wanted Akka, this distinctive series to serve as a major milestone project for her arrival in Hindi-language streaming content. Alongside Radhika Apte, Suresh says she was intrigued by playing Bhavani—a calm, composed, and regal gangster rather than a loud or hyper-violent archetype. She enjoyed the extensive preparation involved, including thorough script-reading sessions, which she noted are less common in South Indian film shoots.

 

“The challenge was how Bhavani stays calm, she is very controlled, she is a very restrained character unlike someone who is overtly expressive that we usually see in gangster movies. When you are playing a gangster, you really don’t know where you start, and a lot of it starts from doing the look test. Once you get into these clothes and get up it is very different how you feel about yourself, 20 percent of the job is done when you are in that look and you start feeling the character. Eventually when you do the script reading, when you do a number of scenes you understand what the director wants and how he wants it. When I saw myself in the mirror for the first time, I got a sense of confidence otherwise I was totally blank about how this is going to be. Your first look is the first hope, that kind of answers all your doubt,” says Suresh.

 

Dismissing cliches about rivalry between actresses as an outdated myth, Suresh said she didn’t feel insecure sharing screen space with Apte. Suresh said, “No, we didn’t have any anxiety or worry about who is getting more screen time because both the characters have a different arc and both are great, though it is the part of the same world our characters are quite distinctive. And Radhika is someone I have always admired. I have watched a lot of her films and to be able to share screen with her means a lot to me. The complexity of the two characters is very different. For instance, I am the protagonist, Radhika can be called an antagonist but even my character could be having grey shades … it depends upon which character you are travelling with. Our chemistry on screen looks so powerful.”

 

 

Suresh stepped into Bollywood with Baby John opposite Varun Dhawan in 2024, however, the film tanked at the box office but the actress has no regrets. “Baby John was my first release but I had already signed Akka before that one. Baby John was backed by my good friends Attlee and Priya. I had all the reasons to say yes to that film because it was also a celebrated film in Tamil. You always want all your films to work but sometimes things don’t work the way you want to. I am someone who doesn’t have any regrets and I am still happy that I got to do that film be it for my friends or relationships. Time plays its role, Akka was supposed to be my first Hindi project but I am really happy that Baby John released first and Akka is coming now, the latter took its own time to shape up. I am glad that my debut in Hindi film industry happened earlier, I just let things flow organically and I stick to that,” she says.