20 years of Tamannaah: The actress speaks about her roles and new jewellery line

This is a landmark year for Tamannaah Bhatia — she completes 20 years in Kollywood. She made her Tamil debut with the film Kedi in 2006. Two decades down the line, the actor is a pan-India star having worked in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu films and big blockbusters like Baahubali. We catch up between shoots.

“I just shot for Rohit Shetty’s Rakesh Maria with John Abraham. Then there is Rangers, an action adventure film — a Luv Ranjan production; and Vvan with Sidharth Malhotra. It’s rooted in some amount of folklore, depicting culture in an interesting way,” she lists out, adding, “This is a fresh outing for me. People have seen me a lot in the southern film industry. This entire phase and all these films will be an interesting outing for me for the Hindi side of the audience.”

 Post this she will start her schedule for Purushan with Vishal, Ragini 3, and Shantaram.

With the camera still rolling, and despite back to back shoots, Tamannaah has found time to embrace one of her passions and become an entrepreneur. The actress recently launched Tamannaah Fine Jewellery in Mumbai (available at the retail store and online). This is jewellery — rings, necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets — in 14kt and 18kt gold with diamonds and gemstones like emerald, ruby, and tourmaline.

Pieces from her first drop
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

“It took two years to come up with the first drop, which has five collections,” says Tamannaah. And keeping the month of love in mind, the brand just dropped Heart Knot, pieces that prominently feature diamond hearts. “The first most impactful piece I came up with and felt like we were onto something was the half and half torque necklace, inspired by the Indian hasli. The torque is like a metallic pipe and we attached it with links. We created our own links, called flick and that plays out a lot in our collections,” she explains.  

As a child, when Tamannaah had a bad day her father would take her to a jewellery store. She would buy trinkets. That perhaps is one of her earliest memories of jewellery. “I started working very young (she was 15 when she acted in her first film Chand Sa Roshan Chehra), so I was exposed to fashion early. I was getting ready everyday wearing jewellery. But I never imagined that I would take a liking to it so strong that I would create within that space,” she says. A collection for men is on the cards next.

While styling herself for events and just “having glam on all the time”, she realised that there was too much emphasis on clothes and accessories that were not comfortable and there was a certain notion of what glamour should be. But when she tried on certain kinds of jewellery it took her away from that notion that others had. She wanted to create jewellery that could be worn everyday and not just be locked away for weddings and other such occasions.

“My father has been in the jewellery business for the last 15 years. The moment I felt I had something to say in this space, I hopped in,” says Tamannaah. The designs, she says, are all hers. And she is on the floor talking to people to understand what they really want in the pieces they wear, what works and what doesn’t.

 Tamannaah has taken lessons she has learnt in the film industry and applied them to her jewellery business as well. “I’ve been in a commercial space and understand that in the end your art is supposed to be consumed by people. If you have to survive as an artiste, you have to reinvent.” What’s been interesting for her is that every year she discovered a new version of herself. Baahubali helped her realise the range and variety she could bring as an actor. She enjoys the ability to make her audience feel something. The whole purpose of entertainment, she believes, is to influence people by invoking something within them. 

But acting is also a physically rigorous job, she admits. “It is gruelling. You have to keep your body and emotions intact. There is very little time for family and self. In the end, would I do it all again?,” she asks and after a pause smiles, “Yes, I would.”