MUMBAI: Actress Sameera Reddy may have worked in only a handful of Bollywood films until now, but she has also been widening her horizons.

On the regional front, Reddy has Bengali, Tamil and Telegu films to her credit. What’s more, she will also be seen in Mira Nair’s international film venture Migration apart from Bollywood movies.

Reddy’s first Bengali film Kaalpurush recently won a National Award and her second Bengali film Ami Yasin Arr Amar Madhubala (The Voyeur) is complete. The movie, produced by B.A.G. Films and Media, is slated to be screened at three international festivals. While shifting gears from Bollywood to Bengal, there is nothing in particular that Reddy had to unlearn about Bollywood, but she did learn a lesson or two while doing regional cinema.

Reddy is of the opinion that in Bollywood, various elements like glamorous clothes, cuts between scenes support an actor. However, she says that in a Bengali movie, “it is just you, your soul and your acting. Nothing is helping you, you are helping yourself. Moreover, if the director has faith in the actor, then you create magic cinema. But in Bollywood half the time people are just replacing actors in films ‘if this actor is not available, call someone else’.”

Incidentally, Bipasha Basu was supposed to act in the Bengali film Kaalpurush and Reddy was to act in Shikhar. But ultimately Basu bagged Shikhar and Reddy did Kaalpurush. Likewise Mallika Sherawat is acting in Welcome instead of Reddy and Reddy is doing Race where she replaced Sherawat.

Speaking of this, she says, “Today it is about date problems! When a filmmaker makes a film with love for the actor, then you make a good film. I think that’s what’s missing today. Everybody is replacing everyone. What is the worth? Think about it,” she concludes.

Reddy’s upcoming projects in Bollywood include Race, One Two Three and Aladdin.