Sameera as a rustic woman

Sameera Reddy says she connected with the late Smita Patil’s spirit while playing a rustic Dalit woman in Nagesh Kukunoor’s Yeh Hausla, walking barefoot in the mud in ghagra-choli with peacocks prancing around her.

The actress says she finds the comparison with Smita “uncanny”.

“I never knew I could do these things. And this Smita Patil comparison is getting uncanny. It was Buddhadeb Dasgputa who first compared me with her,” says Sameera. But Sameera, who has featured in films like Musafir and Taxi No. 911, is satisfied with the experience. “I feel as if I have had a rebirth as an actor. When people see me in Yeh Hausla, I hope they see me and not just Smita Patil. While doing the film, I felt I was connecting with Smita’s spirit. Maybe it was the pure, unspoilt ambience and that whole spirit of Chakra and Manthan that Smita is associated with,” says Sameera.

She says her director was a great help. “Nagesh has taught me so much. I’ve connected with emotions within myself that I never knew existed. I felt I’ve gone to acting school. Other actors came and went. But I was there for the full 47-day schedule. I’m in every frame of the film,” says she. Sameera has shot on the outskirts of Jodhpur in Rajasthan for 46 days for the film.