Dance, drama and drawings   

Express News Service

Actor Maya Nelluri, who wowed us all with her performance in films like Ranarangam and Thimmarusu, does more than just act. Even as she shuttles between cities for her shoots, Maya knows how to unwind after a busy day at work. 

When she first moved to Hyderabad from New Zealand, when not shooting, Maya tried her hands at makeup and styling. “I did mostly out of boredom, but I began to enjoy it and got better at it. I tried it on myself and my friends and it has been going well,” she shares.

But nothing beats her first love – writing. “I would write for a couple of magazines as and when I could and I still do. It was only later that I shifted my focus to acting as a full-time profession. I enjoy the art of expressing thoughts on paper and I love talking to people and learning more about them, through the process of putting a story together,” Maya tells The New Indian Express.

Drawing and painting, however, takes up most of Maya’s time, when she gets a break. So good is she at it that she will soon be holding an exhibition of her work in Chennai. Maya loves reading too, but ends up biting more than she can chew. “So that makes a collector of books,” she laughs.

Binge, travel…

She has been spending most of her recent spare time watching content on OTT platforms: “I’m a huge fan of psychological thrillers. Right now watching Our Father which is a documentary on Netflix about a doctor who inseminated women with his semen. But my favourite would be Behind Her Eyes and Mindhunter.”

She is also a travel junkie who enjoys jetting off to places as and when time permits. “My holiday trips to Spain and Italy are some of my most cherished trips. I did travel a lot more before the pandemic, I hope to do a lot more now that we are crawling back to normalcy,” she shares, adding that she also loves collecting magnets from different places she visits. They all go onto her fridge! 

During the pandemic, Maya took to dancing. “I started taking classes and have been enjoying them. Hip hop and contemporary are some of my favourite genres. I’ve also been trying my hand at scriptwriting but nothing concrete to speak a lot about it yet,” says she.

The Krishna Ghattam actor concludes saying she has her hands full with the brand Fluffybuu that she co-founded with a friend – they sell pet-inspired merchandise for pet lovers and accessories for pets.