Dehradun-born and Hyderabad-based Odia girl Anketa Maharana’s distinct debut in Bollywood has sparked enough excitement among the film fans of Odisha and the countless aspirants for the entertainment industry.
The budding model and actress has been picked up by famed filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) for his latest venture titled ‘Thriller’.
“I am thrilled the most to be cast in Thriller by someone whom I, an aspiring actress, revere as the god of cinema,” says Anketa, whose parents hail from Kantilo town in Nayagarh district. Her father, being an Indian Air Force officer, the family lived in Dehradun where she was born and brought up.
It was her dance that fetched Anketa the fortune of making the debut in Bollywood. “I love dancing and I am very good at it. It was during an event in Hyderabad that Ram Gopal Varma watched me dancing. Then and there, he offered me the opportunity even without asking for an audition. It was beyond my dream to enter Bollywood under an RGV banner,” shared the 24-year-old.
Fond of Telugu film industry, Anketa had her debut in cinema last year with Telugu movie ‘4 Letters’ followed by the yet-to-be-released bilingual film ‘Patnagarh’, inspired by the infamous Patnagarh bomb blast case of Odisha.
For the RGV movie, Anketa would be known as ‘Apsara Rani’. “It seems he wishes to transform Anketa into an apsara through his movie,” she quips.
