The lukewarm response to Gharshana does not seem to have affected its heroine Asin.

She continues to be busy and bubbly as ever.

But when you are doing films left, right and center, you'll hardly have any time to pause and think.

And she is also a born survivor.

Literally at that as it was evident during the shooting of Gharshana. As she and 16 crew members were returning on a country-made boat from Nuwaraeliye Lake near Colombo, the boat suddenly capsized and Asin was the first person to go into the water.

"I went under water twice. I tried my best to hold on to the wooden plank of the boat when I came up for the second time, but it slipped from my hand. When I came up for the third time I had already drunk enough water and was feeling breathless. I thought my life was over. My father who was also travelling in the boat jumped into the water, caught my hand and pulled me out," she said recently.

But Asin feels suffocated in Telugu in a different sense. "Unfortunately I have not been able to find the right scripts in Telugu. Most of the films that come to me have big stars in the lead. But my intention is to do all kinds of roles with different actors".

In the event, she has found a much-need lifeline in Tamil. "I am doing three films in Tamil with Ajit, Surya and editor Mohan’s son Ravi as my costars.

But Telugu films will always be her first choice.

"It is here that I got my breaks," she says.