When film stars celebrate their birthdays, they make sure that everybody who is somebody in filmdom is present and helps make it a gala affair.
But Namitha, who celebrated her birthday on May 10 with her parents at her Mumbai residence, and after a gap of four years at that, seems to have soft corner for the poor of the land instead.
“Since I have been busy with shooting schedules beginning 2005, I could not celebrate my birthday with my family, especially with my grandfather. All these years I have, therefore, been celebrating my birthday with unit members on locations,” she has said.
What is significant, however, is that, in Chennai, members of her fan club celebrated Namitha’s birthday by feeding, and distributing sweets among, orphans. Club president Selvam and public relations officer John gifted three computers, school books and stationery to students of Namitha Evening Tuition Centre, a free education wing of the fan club, functioning at Somaiyannoor in Coimbatore. The actress, who was shooting at Coimbatore, took time off to be with the children.
It may or may not be because of the blessings and prayers of the poor, but Namitha is going strong after “Billa”. Her plate is full with two Telugu films and one Malayalam film. Right now she is playing the role of a glamorous ghost in “Jaganmohini”; a girl who gathers pearls and falls in love with a prince. The royal family rejects her, and she gets killed. She returns as a ghost to stop the prince’s marriage with Nila, a princess; so she is only a ghost in love, not an evil one. It is interesting that Namitha has refused to watch the original of the remake so that she may enact her role in her own way, allowing for changes in the storyline. Moreover, she has admitted that she believes in ghosts. Since she has learned scuba diving, Namitha will be doing some underwater scenes to be shot in Mumbai. She says she prefers action scenes to the routine song-and-dance ones; found the dialogues tough as they were in classical Tamil.
However, Namitha looks more excited about her Telugu film “Desadrohi” which, like “Vyjayanti, IPS”, is a cop film in which she plays the cop taking on the villain. “Language is no barrier as I am doing a Malayalam film too,” she has said.