Aakanksha Singh enjoying the roles coming her way in the south

Hyderabad: Navigating an acting career between Hindi and South Indian films, Aakanksha Singh has chosen the path less travelled to make her mark in South Indian movies. Her decision to portray meaty characters rather than rely on glamorous roles also seems to be paying off.

Aakanksha has yet again garnered attention for her nuanced performance in the recently released movie 'Clap', a Tamil-Telugu bilingual sports drama. Speaking to IANS, the actress said that it is the role rather than screen time that matters to her.

"I don't want to be just there doing nothing on screen," Aakanksha said. "Even if it's a five minute or a 10-minute role, i don't mind doing it if i know that it has potential for me to portray it well and that people will remember that role. As an actor my job is done.

"So you give me a five-minute role, I will do it, and I'll make sure that you will remember it, if the story is nice, my character is nice. I don't want to go for any random thing. That's why I am going slow and steady."

In 'Clap', written and directed by Aditya Prithvi, Aakanksha plays the role of lead actor Adi Pinisetty's wife. The movie, which has released on Sonyliv, is about an athlete who ends up getting handicapped in a mishap.

Delving deeper into the film in the course of her conversation with IANS, Aakanksha said: "It is not a commercial film. If we talk about sports films, we think about 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag', 'Sultan' or 'Dangal', which are big-budget films and have big actors. They're commercially very strong."

She added: "'Clap' is a subject-oriented film. A content-oriented film. It's not about dancing and singing. It has no songs, in fact. We have all the songs in the form of montages. We don't have lovey-dovey scenes. It's entirely a slice-of-life film. And it hits you hard because not just a sportsperson but anybody can relate to it."

Aakanksha has acted in the 2017 Bollywood film 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania' and will next be seen in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer 'Runway34'.

Her portfolio of South Indian films include the award-winning 2017 Telugu movie 'Malli Raava'. Her second project was the Telugu film 'Devadas' in which she was cast as the female lead opposite actor Nagarjuna. 'Pailwan' is her first Kannada project. As Akanksha put it, language is not a barrier for her.

"There is no language thing now," she told IANS. "People from Bollywood are coming to South and from the South they're coming to Bollywood. So there are no boundaries as such. I consider myself to be an actor first."

Signing off, Aakanksha said: "I love working with the South Indian industry because I am getting such good roles. Wherever I get good roles i will work. That is my agenda."

Aakanksha started her journey with TV and is known for her performance in the series 'Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha' and 'Gulmohar Grand'. Before venturing into TV and films, she did theatre and has acted in more than 10 plays.