Moving on from always playing the girl-next-door, the South cinema actor has found her mojo, and success, with more complex roles
Tamil and Telugu actress Regina Cassandra
Image: Prashun Prashanth Sridhar
Styling: Navya & Divya; Makeup: Jenifer Antonio; Hair: Deepti Joshi; Dress: A Humming Way; Jewels: Joolry
The year was 1998, and a girl in Class 4 at Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao School on Harrington Road in Chennai had planned her day. She would fake a stomach ache so that she could leave early and complete an advertising commercial for health drink Maltova. Things go exactly as planned, and her mother—who had her entire screen kit ready at home—picks her up early after a frantic call from school authorities.
The girl, who spent hours facing the mirror dolled up—and affectionately called “Cat” by her mother—rushes off to complete the commercial. This was Tamil and Telugu actress Regina Cassandra’s first stint in front of the camera. “There was no looking back after that,” says Cassandra, 30, over a Zoom call after a hectic day of shoots with actor Vijay Sethupathi in Mumbai.
Cassandra is completing work for a Hindi web series called Fakes, for Amazon Prime, by The Family Man-makers Raj-DK, and also stars Shahid Kapoor. She is expected to come back to Mumbai this winter to shoot for another Hindi venture called Rocket Boys.
(This story appears in the 22 October, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)