Instagram star Ahilya makes her debut in Tollywood with Sing Geetham

If you survived the pandemic with your sanity largely intact, chances are you also spent a fair amount of time laughing at Ahilya’s videos. Better known to her 7,79,000+ followers as @ahillyeah, the now 26-year-old Mumbai-born, Puducheri-raised creator became an Instagram favourite with her spot-on accents, multilingual wit and an uncanny ability to turn everyday observations into comedy gold.

Fast forward a few years and the woman who once cheerfully, ‘messed around online,’ is now making her Telugu debut as a leading lady in Sing Geetham, an ambitious project presented by legendary filmmaker Singeetam Srinivasa Rao — the man who gave India the dialogue-less classic Pushpaka Vimana (1987). This time, the veteran filmmaker is backing what Ahilya describes as, “India’s first musical film in the same way that the west has musicals.” Not bad for someone who insists she never planned any of this. “Honestly, not at all. Mostly just because I felt like I was messing around for the longest time online. It was just something for myself, something that I was doing for fun,” she laughs.

The film arrived in the most Gen-Z way imaginable — through Instagram. Tollywood producer Nag Ashwin slid into her DMs after becoming a follower of her content. Within 15 minutes, she was speaking to director Singeetam Srinivasa Rao over video call. “It was such an interesting project, super unique. Plus, it was my first lead. So, I get to be a lead in this film, which is exciting,” she enthuses. After all, this wasn’t her first stint as an actress as she made her on-screen debut with director Shoojit Sircar’s I Want to Talk opposite Abhishek Bachchan in 2024. There was just one tiny catch with this project, though. The film was in Telugu. Which, inconveniently, she didn’t speak.

For someone fluent in English, Hindi, French and Bengali — and who grew up in South India — it wasn’t entirely alien territory, but she quickly discovered that Tamil and Telugu aren’t exactly cousins who finish each other's sentences. “The difference between Tamil and Telugu, in all honesty, is pretty world apart,” she says, adding, “I am not fluent by any means, but I can understand now what’s happening and I am able to write some sentences. So, I’m quite happy about that, honestly.”

Happy might be an understatement. Ahilya has gone one step further and dubbed her own lines — a rarity for newcomers in Telugu cinema. “I’m really quite proud of that. I put in the hours and I took the classes,” she tells us. Considering her social media fame largely rests on accents and voice work, not dubbing herself simply wasn’t an option. “It would have been a little bit of a shame on my entire work thing that I do online,” she admits. And while audiences expecting elaborate dance numbers might be disappointed, Ahilya herself seems perfectly fine with that. “Unfortunately, I still did not dance in this movie. Or maybe that’s actually very fortunate,” she bursts into peals of laughter.

The film, she says, deliberately avoids conventional Telugu cinema formulas. “It’s an adventure and it talks about something that is extremely relevant to the world today. The point of the film was to make a universal film that everybody enjoys,” she reveals. The project has also stretched her musically. Although she regularly performs English music with her guitar, working alongside music director Devi Sri Prasad was an entirely different beast.

“He’s just a hit monster, honestly,” she says affectionately. “This is very much in the Telugu cinema style and Telugu classical music in a sense, but also not. So, there was a lot going on in the mix. It became a very multi-dimensional learning process. It’s not just about acting,” she explains.

That willingness to explore seems deeply rooted in her upbringing. Puducheri and nearby Auroville have produced an impressive number of creative personalities, including actor Kalki Koechlin and Ahilya believes the environment itself encourages artistic freedom. “There’s such a big focus on not going down the typical success, money-orientated life. I didn’t get pressure from my parents to have to be anyone or do anything particular,” she avers. Alternative schooling, art, reading and culture were all part of growing up.

“I think when you encourage kids to explore those creative outlets, people just find their thing,” the young content creator turned actress tells us. Her own thing, apparently, involves doing absolutely everything. Acting? Tick. Music? Tick. Voice work? Tick; and now, video games.

One of her more unusual projects also this year is a PlayStation 5 title created by Indian developers, featuring live-action sequences integrated into gameplay. “It’s a sort of first of its kind and they’ve written a fully Indian story, which is super cool,” she says. She is also hoping to release an EP, proving once again that staying in one lane isn’t really her style. In fact, style itself is something Ahilya approaches with practicality rather than glamour. Puducheri’s humid weather and her love for motorcycles have shaped her wardrobe. “I’m a very functional dresser. But I love colour, I love Indian handicraft and I really enjoy not wearing polyester,” she tells us nonchalantly.

Despite entering films, she has no intention of abandoning the internet. She hopes people eventually stop seeing creators-turned-actors as one thing or the other. “I want people to kind of know me as a multi-hyphenate. When they know me as an actor, I’d like them to know me as an actor; and then if I’m someone who does this and that — not either or,” she explains.

That authenticity extends to how she handles social media itself. Unlike the perpetually cheerful personas many creators cultivate, Ahilya isn’t afraid to admit when life gets messy. “I’m having a really shitty day and I’ve been crying all day,” is something she says she’s perfectly happy to tell followers. “I have to take space away from Instagram too. There have been months where I have not posted at all. It is a matter of mental health at the end of the day. I need ‘do nothing’ time so that I can have ‘do a lot’ time,” she admits.

Perhaps that honesty explains why audiences have connected with her so strongly. For now, though, she’s embracing this delightfully unpredictable chapter — one that has taken her from funny accent videos and French impressions to becoming the lead in a Telugu musical. And if some French-speaking Indian filmmaker happens to be reading this, Ahilya has a message: “if you ever need a French-speaking Indian, I’m right here.” Judging by the way her career has unfolded, so far, somebody just might slide into her DMs and we’re hoping that project happens soon too!

QUICK FIVE WITH AHILYA!

If you were not from the planet Earth, which planet do you think you'd be from and why?

I think I would be from Neptune, I think because it’s like all blue, I like blue.

If there was one role that you could play across time?

I would love to have played Hermione Granger, maybe, that would have been fun. I really identified with her because she was like this sort of curly haired, know-it-all and I felt like her when I was a kid.

 What dish replenishes you after a tiring day of work?

Stir-fried peanut noodles.

Your perfect getaway?

I really do love going to Goa.

If you weren’t who you are today, what do you think you would have been doing?

Definitely something in education or related to the environment.

Sing Geetham is in theatres now.

Email: romal@newindianexpress.com

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