Chennai, May 16 (IANS): Well-known Kuchupudi dancer Sandhya Raju, who is making her feature film debut with this week's Malayalam drama "Careful", feels acting was a natural progression and she is open to explore more opportunities.

In the V.K Prakash-directed investigative thriller, rumoured to be the remake of Kannada film "U-Turn", she plays a journalist.

"As a dancer, who has also starred in a few short films, acting was a natural progression. Through cinema I can reach a wider audience. If thousand people watch my dance performance, I can reach a large audience through cinema," Sandhya told IANS.

It was her short film "Natyam", which caught the attention of her director Prakash.

Talking about the experience of working on the project, she said: "Though I'm not a trained actor, the work I did on short films came in very handy. The only different aspect of working on a feature film is its size; both in terms of scale and the number of people involved."

Does being a dancer help in acting, especially in being expressive?

"It certainly does to an extent. But Prakash has a very different style of working. In dance, we rehearse to get a perfect pose or move. My director made me realise that acting works on spontaneity, especially by imagining the given situation to act," she said.

Asked if she would like to star in a full-length danced-based film, Sandhya said: "I'm a huge fan of filmmaker K. Viswanath. I liked how he used cinema as a medium to make music-based stories and their reach was phenomenal. I would love to be part of such films."