After a long time, Namitha is smiling. And, she has enough reasons to cheer about and celebrate. Her Simha in Telugu, with superstar B...

After a long time, Namitha is smiling. And, she has enough reasons to cheer about and celebrate.

Her Simha in Telugu, with superstar Balakrishna, is turning out to be the year’s biggest hit. But the bigger reason for her to feel happy is that she has signed her first Tamil film in a year! Kollywood’s glam babe is doing an all-important role in Kalaignar Karunanidhi’s Ilaignan, directed by Suresh Krissna of Annamalai and Baasha fame. The film has Pa Vijay and Ramya Nambisan in the lead.

Elaborating on the role, Namitha, who is now shooting for the film in Ooty, says, “I’m thrilled to do Ilaignan. My character is crucial to the development of the plot. It’s a very powerful role — a character with negative shades with which I get to experiment with my looks and costumes; something different and striking. I took up the role because the story, screenplay and dialogues for the film have been penned by Kalaignar. It is also Suresh Krissna’s 50th film. It feels good to be a part of such a project.”

Meanwhile, the actress, who celebrated her birthday with a puja last week near Lonavala, adds that she may get into film production at a later stage. “It is something that I’m toying with, but will start with a proper script and only if the project is viable. Let certain things be under wraps for the time being,” she says.

At the moment, Namitha is also appearing as a judge in a reality show on television which is garnering record TRPs. Says Namitha, “Maanada Mayilada has given me tremendous reach with the mass audiences. Do you know that it has the second highest TRP among all dance-based reality shows in India? When I visit small towns, people are so nice to me; I never knew I was so popular.”