Priya Hassan returns to movies with Smuggler

It’s been close to seven years since actress-director Priya Hassan was last seen onscreen. The break, she says, was not intentional, as she has been busy with her next, Smuggler, which she has produced, directed and acted in. While handling so many departments was time consuming, Priya adds that having a multilingual cast onboard, including Suman, Sayaji Shinde and Ponnambalam, among others, also required careful schedule planning.
“Smuggler is my third as a filmmaker, after Jambada Hudugi and Bindaas Hudugi, both of which were well received. We are finally ready with the film that will hit screens this week. It’s been a great and satisfying journey, considering that it threw many challenges my way, in terms of handling direction and production, while also acting. The film, as the title suggests, is about my character, who is a smuggler. What’s interesting is that even though I am the protagonist of Smuggler, my character has shades of grey. I even got to do a fair bit of action, which I did without a body double, while taking on the many villains in the film,” says Priya.