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Meena who has lasted for a long time in the South filmdom has the knack of springing up with hits in each language she has enacted in. Her film with Chiranjeevi, a remake of 'Suryavamsham' and in Malayalam the Sidiqqe-Lal film 'Friends' will definitely help put her on the top slot she has retained despite stiff competition from so many newcomers. She answers a few of our questions:
Q: Why don't you have as many films as Simran, Rambha or Devyani in Tamil?
A: I am not game for kissing scenes or wearing hot pants and swimsuits throughout the film. I feel that more than numbers it's the quality that matters. In six years I have done sixty films and if you see my career graph from my days as a child artist I think it's been more than 100 films. I have accepted roles that some of my colleagues would not have dreamt of doing. I played mother of a child in 'Avvai Shanmughi'. Who will dare to do it? To tell you the truth the roles that others are doing are ones rejected by me.
Q: Why is
it that despite having hits you never became a rage like Kushboo
or Rambha? 
A: I don't want to be a rainbow that flickers in the sky and disappears. I don't want to be worshipped one day and forgotten the next day.
Q: You wore swimsuits for the first time in 'Naam Iruvar' and it backfired. Why this move?'
A: I wore swimsuits and modern dresses because the constant complaint from my fans who see me in Telegu films is that I don't wear glamourous dresses in Tamil films. I was shooting for a Tamil film in Sun City and had the scope to put on glam dresses. I thought of trying it out. The film flopped and mercifully I never got flooded with offers to appear in swimsuits.
Q: Why are you being paired with older heroes and not the young ones?
A: Quite unfortunate because when I began as a heroine it was full of oldies and it still continues to be their domain. Some of these hero's daughters are my age. With the younger lot I did get some offers but then it had nothing for me except dance around so I rejected them. But now I have a film with Vijay let's wait and see how it goes.
Q: Why is it that Manirathnam, K Balchander and Bharathiraja did not cast you in their films?
A: No idea. Mani did ask me if I was free before 'Thiruda Thiruda' but I had no dates but the other big names never had any role for me. Maybe they will think of me later.
Q: Your mother hanging around you makes you very rigid, is the general opinion in the industry?
A: No way. I joke and play around but then no messing up my personal life with my career.
Q: What are planning to do next?
A: Enter Hindi films and become a Sri Devi. In those days Telugu directors, directed Hindi films and you could get entry into Bollywood through them but now one has to get in through a Mumbai director and I have no clue as to how to go about it.
Q: You could have entered Bollywood by playing the same role in 'Chachi 420' as you did in 'Avvai Shanmughi'?
A: I don't know why Kamal sir did not think about me for the Hindi version but then I guess I am happy that I did not make my entry into the Hindi field in the role of a mother. It would have taken me out of the bracket of acting with young heroes.
Q: In today's industry only manipulators can survive. Do you agree?
A: In a way yes. You had earlier asked me why I don't have a large number of films and the reason is because I don't manipulate anyone to get roles. Once I commit my dates then I don't give it to others even if the money and role is good. This has resulted in me losing many films while other heroines have without qualms signed movies and left locations without even saying goodbye.
I see that the producer signs up the same heroine who gave him trouble earlier. Similarly I don't cut down other heroines roles if it is a two-heroine oriented subject. Many times I have been the victim of this cutting my role. Its very tough out here but then I always believed that only if you are destined to get anything then you will get it irrespective of however you manipulate things.
Source: Indiatalkies