“It’s nice when actors do stuff other than acting,” says Shriya Saran of Sivaji fame. “For a lot of us, creativity gets limited to just dabbing on the greasepaint and it can get boring sometimes. Shriya says it helps to take up a hobby and excel in it. “It’s a great way to beat stress, especially after long hours on the sets. So when you come home you definitely need something to soothe you,” she says. Shriya herself took up kathak a couple of years ago and is now a professional dancer. “And once I got into acting, I also took up salsa and I’m getting to be quite good at that too,” she says. Shriya adds that excelling in a hobby sometimes feels better than her achievements as an actress.