Actor Regena Cassandrra interview: On completing 20 years in films and her love for the craft

“When I was younger, I used to romanticise the rain a lot. I couldn’t drink tea or coffee very often. So, when it rained, I would imagine myself reading a Mills & Boon novel and drinking tea or hot chocolate.” With clouds converging outside her residence in Chennai, actor Regena Cassandrra gets quite nostalgic as she sits with us for a freewheeling chat.

I ask her what the name ‘Latha’ brings to mind, and she smiles — that’s the name of the character she played in her debut film, Kanda Naal Mudhal. “I was 14, the youngest on the set, and I was supposed to look 20. I played this girl who elopes and comes back pregnant!” She grins, recollecting how she got to work with a female director (V Priya) in her very first movie. “And Nandhini” — director Nandhini JS, who then assisted Priya — “was the one who would help me tie my belly and my saree. I didn’t have makeup because PC Sriram sir didn’t like makeup at all. I had a moustache and full-grown eyebrows. It brings back a lot of memories.”

Kanda Naal Mudhal was released in 2005, which means that Regena has been a film actor for 20 years now. Having grown as someone who wouldn’t easily celebrate special occasions, Regena says that she has learnt not to be so hard on herself. This is an occasion she would celebrate wholeheartedly. “You tend to learn and unlearn things, and this year has been about going out of my comfort zone.” That she is still pursuing what she had started without much thought makes her happy. “It’s nice to look back and see that this has worked out. Also, all of those years have made me very present. So, even though 20 years have passed, I still feel like this present moment means a lot,” she says.

CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, 30/11/2025: Regena Cassandrra
| Photo Credit:
Thamodharran B

Given Regena’s diverse filmography, it would be hard not to see a film lover in her — the spectrum ranges from playing a grieving mother in the deeply moving Mugizhto one of the many exes of a goofy man in the fun Autograph remix, Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum. To much surprise, Regena says that it was film acting, not films, that has always spoken to her. “I just enjoy the process of doing different expressions for different characters. So I did not watch films and go, ‘Oh, one night I will have this celebrity status’.”

The actor — who, interestingly, studied Psychology to understand human behaviour — says she gets a kick out of delving through the many layers that make her characters. “I really enjoy waking up and deciding how this character will look and behave in a particular scene. It’s about working on a scene with my team, my director, my hairstylist, makeup artist, co-director or the AD; or figuring out dialogues, reading my scene and adding to it, asking questions, and seeing it translate from paper to screen…I love that process,” she says.

She asserts that she has never carried remnants of a character beyond the shoot. “I am a very switch-on-switch-off actor. It’s not something I’ve done consciously.” On the set, however, one will always find her preparing meticulously for her character, she adds. She picks two of her roles — both coincidentally as antagonists — to substantiate. “For Chakra, I sat with director Anandan, and I asked, ‘Will she bite her nails? What is she thinking?’ because I wanted to understand her better. In Vidaamuyarchi, I would discuss with Magizh Thirumeni sir about these explicit thoughts that my character would have. This woman is having more than 100 thoughts, but there’s only one thought that’s coming out, and it’s coming out so fluidly — in her head, she is always murdering someone.” And so when she performs, such nitty-gritties that she had written down as notes stay at the back of her head, she adds.

While she may not have chosen to do such an unconventional role in Kanda Naal Mudhal, Regena has grown as an actor who chooses many such offbeat roles amidst routine offers. In fact, as she recollects, there was a time when both her item number, ‘Saana Kashtam,’ from Acharya, and the trailer of The Rocket Boys, in which she played Mrinalini Sarabhai, came out on the same day. “And a year before that, Nenjam Marappathillaiand Chakra released at the same time — again, drastically different characters.” However, the actor says that it was never a conscious decision to keep switching between the two schools of acting. “I have never gone out and said I want to do this film. I’ve just been blessed to pick such roles, or for such roles to be offered to me.”

CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, 30/11/2025: Regena Cassandrra
| Photo Credit:
Shivaraj S

Regena has been vocal about going through a difficult time in her life, around the time when her film with director Selvaraghavan, Nenjam Marappathillai, was about to go into production. And when she needed it the most, her acting loved her back. “I wanted to quit the industry. I was really done with all the noise and the chaos around me. My conscious decision was that after Nenjam Marappathillai, I’m done working. I had finished all my commitments up until then.”

But something changed when she entered the sets of that film. “All my gratitude goes to Selva sir. So we were shooting in ECR, and to avoid much travel, the producers had me stay at a place near the shooting spot. Now, Selva sir is one such director who gives actors a lot of homework. He said, ‘Listen, you play a professional caregiver in the film, and so you have to create a bond with this child,’ and I love children. So on the first day, I took some chocolates, toys, but unfortunately, during my first shot, when I had to bump into SJ Suryah sir, I inadvertently hurt the child, and he started crying.” Regena panicked as the child artiste refused to come close to her. Mustering all her mental strength to do what was needed, she decided to take it up as a challenge. “And because I took it as a challenge, the whole exercise made me not think about everything else that was going on in my life. By the end of this process, the child and I would sit together in my room between breaks; he would be playing with his Spider-Man toy, and I would be feeding him. We danced together, played together, and that experience gave me a new thought about life and work.”

Immediately after Nenjam Marappathillai, Jyo Achyutananda too compelled a hesitant Regena to continue doing films. “I should thank director Srinivas Avasarala; he chased me down from Hyderabad for the film and didn’t take no for an answer. I really liked the story, and working on myself through these two films that really helped me gain my trust back — not in the industry, but in myself.”

CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, 30/11/2025: Regena Cassandrra
| Photo Credit:
Thamodharran B

2025 was quite an eventful year for Regena. Her performances in both Vidaamuyarchi and Jaatturned heads, and up next, she has Mookuthi Amman 2, Section 108, and a long-unreleased Tamil project set to release. “I also play one of the female leads in Madhur Bhandarkar’s The Wives, which is about the lives of three different wives of Bollywood stars. It’s right up Madhur sir’s forte, and he’s not a filmmaker who shies away from portraying certain concepts.” In Mookuthi Amman 2, Regena once again dons the hat of a baddie. I ponder if she wishes to play an Amman in a film. “(Laughs) I would love to. Why not? There’s an audience for it, and I think I will be a pretty Amman.”

She doesn’t have a 2026 resolution, but is resolute that some changes are in order. “I vowed and made promises to the people I work with that I am going to work differently and change things up a bit from what I have done for the last 20 years. I feel like whatever has carried me these years has been good enough till now, but things can get better. I think these coming years are going to see a difference.”

Published – December 15, 2025 06:12 pm IST