Shanthi Priya is back on the big screen after more than three decades, and she is calling it nothing short of a rebirth. The actress, last seen with Akshay Kumar in Ikke Pe Ikka, has made her comeback with Bad Girl, a Tamil film produced by Vetrimaaran and directed by his former assistant Varsha Bharath. The film also features Anjali Sivaraman in a pivotal role.

Talking about the project, Shanthi Priya said she felt like she was returning home.

“I felt like I was reborn. It was amazing, and that too coming on a silver screen… coming back to the place where my journey began is like I am coming back to my mum’s house,” she told Hindustan Times.

Interestingly, Shanthi came on board after a morning call from the casting director, who first pitched the project to her. Minutes later, she got on the phone with Varsha.

“She narrated the story, and it was amazing. The way she was narrating, she was visualising the whole story with great confidence. She knew what she wanted. She was like a pro. I was totally immersed in the character,” the actress recalled.

She admitted she even choked up while listening to the climax and immediately agreed to do the film.

For Shanthi Priya, working with fresh talent wasn’t new. She explained that gender was never a factor in her choices and remembered how 35 years ago, someone had trusted her as a newcomer. With the same belief, she was happy to support Varsha.

“She didn’t audition me either,” Shanthi said.

There is also an interesting detail that Varsha herself did not know Shanthi’s early South identity as Nishanthi. 

Shanthi shared, “She (Varsha) knew Shanthi Priya from Instagram. Later, she told me that when she showed her mum a picture of me, her mother said, ‘What are you saying? Shanthi Priya? This is Nishanthi. My generation knows her as Nishanthi.’”

In Bad Girl, Shanthi Priya plays the role of Sundari, the mother of Anjali’s character Ramya.