MY MOTHER WORKED WITH INGRID BERGMAN: ELLI AVRRAM

Elli AvrRam opens up about getting better roles in web shows, and how it was tough to change people’s perception of her

So far, this year has been fantastic for Elli AvrRam. She featured in a Tamil film, Paris Paris and a Kannada film, Butterfly, two web shows, Typewriter and a recently-released one based on the much-talkedabout Nanavati case. “I am glad that all my hard work has paid off. It has been a really long journey. I have been shooting for these projects for the last two years, so it’s heartening to see such a great response to them,” she says.

Her career started with the film Mickey Virus (2013) and she went on to do Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon (2015) and several more. After that, she also featured in many dance numbers in films such as Poster Boys (2017), Baazaar (2018) and Jabariya Jodi. For the actor, bagging the role as the lead in her recentlyreleased web show was “thrilling”, and she admits that web shows have given her “better opportunities”. “The roles on web shows have been more performance-oriented. I remember I was in tears when I read the script and also, when I bagged the role. I come from an acting background. My mother worked with the legendary Hollywood actor, Ingrid Bergman and my aunt runs a theatre company in Sweden, so I have grown up around actors,”she says.

Elli also admits that it was tough for her to get good opportunities after her debut film. “It was quite hard. It took time to change people’s perception about me. I was told that being a foreigner, people didn’t take me seriously as an actor. They thought perhaps I was in for the fame and wanted to only do glamorous songs. But it is definitely not like that. I want to be an actor and came to Bollywood because I fell in love with Hindi films as a child. I came prepared to be in Hindi films as I studied the Devanagri script at the Stockholm University and learnt Bollywood dance before I moved. I was always serious about having a career here and not just being another foreigner, who happened to do films,” she shares.

I came prepared to be in Hindi films as I studied the Devanagri script at the Stockholm University and learnt Bollywood dance before I moved to India. ELLI AVRRAM, ACTOR