Following in the footsteps of the Ara Minas and the Assunta de Rossis and the Maui Taylors and the Rica Peralejos, one more sweet soul is throwing clothes and caution to the wind in a determined effort to excel (not so much to exhale). By hook or by crook? Oh, well, if you can’t lick ‘em, join ’em?
If they can, why can’t Katya Santos?
Like Maui and Rica who started in showbiz as child stars in TV soaps, Katya has had enough of so-so roles in movies that consigned her to the "supporting" level (such as those in Viva flicks Honey My Love, So Sweet; Kiss Mo Ko; Laging Naroon Ka; Radyo; and Akala Mo, playing Gladys Reyes type kontrabida in most of them) and hitching a quick ride on the now-overcrowded bold-wagon. There’s always a room for one more boldie, isn’t there?
Katya will welcome Year 2003 with barely a stitch on in Sukdulan, the Viva Films bold opener of the year, directed by Mac Alejandre and also starring Raymond Bagatsing as Katya’s sexually-dysfunctional husband and 2002 Mossimo Bikini Boy Carlo Maceda as the playboy who satisfies Katya where Raymond can’t.
Sukdulan, scripted by Peque Gallaga who gave up the directorial job in favor of Mac, was originally intended for Lorna Tolentino, Assunta de Rossi and Angelu de Leon, but Katya doesn’t mind being the fourth choice at all.
"What’s important is I got the role," said Katya, 20, petite at 5’2", fully-blooming at 110 pounds and seductive at 37-26-34. "I’m proud of my boobs," she added. "Actually, it runs in both sides of my family. You won’t believe it but ‘yung sa akin ang pinaka-maliit. You should see those of my sisters’ and my cousins’. Magugulat ka. They’re more gifted than I am."
And they’re real, mind you!
"Not an inch of my body has been touched," revealed Katya. "Walang binago, walang ginalaw, walang inopera. Every part is as is. Original."
Katya is the third in a brood of five children (four buxomy girls and one boy). At age four, she was already doing commercials, chalking up more than 30 (including those for Bear Brand, Jollibee and McDo) before she joined at age 9 ABS-CBN’s kiddie show Ang TV along with the likes of Camille Prats, Claudine Barretto, Jolina Magdangal and Rica Peralejo. As a teenager, she co-starred with Aga Muhlach in another ABS-CBN sitcom, Oki Doki Doc, before she was recruited by Viva Films/Television and cast as a kontrabida in Anna Karenina, the GMA soap topbilled by, among others, Sunshine Dizon. After doing about a dozen films for Viva, confined to co-starring roles, Katya quit showbiz not so much in a huff as in frustration and finished a course in Business Administration at I-AME (International Academy of Management and Economics) in May last year.
With school behind her and having reached the "age of reason," Katya felt it’s time for her to grow up. Thus, her derring-do-to bite the "forbidden apple" when Viva dangled before her a new tempting offer, such as those she turned down when she was sweet sixteen, Balahibong Pusa (formerly titled Lolita) which eventually landed on Rica Peralejo’s lap, Tatarin (was it the role which Patricia Javier took?) and the yet unfilmed Scorpio Nights 3.
"I’m doing this with my parents’ consent," Katya assured (the movie-going public). "It’s not so much for the money but the desire to prove myself. Sukdulan is a drama with bold scenes and not a bold movie na nilagyan lang ng dramatic scenes. Sexy, I should say; bold na hindi bastos."
In the two love scenes she has already shot, Katya stripped naked under the shower, with only soap suds covering portions of her body and in the bed scene, she tries to satisfy the perverted Raymond (whose libido can be heated up only if he watches a sexy video) without any video around – in vain.
How did the former, innocent Oki Doki Doc teener do those scenes with realism?
"We did an acting workshop before the shooting. Besides, Raymond was very helpful. He guided me."
Angelu turned down Sukdulan because of the explicit love/sexy scenes and good for moviegoers. Who wants to watch the nude body of a mother of two love children when they can soar to the heights of fantasy/ecstacy with a fresh find like Katya doing it bigger-than-life up there?
"Actually," said Katya, "Viva made me read two scripts. The other one was entitled Lupe which would be directed by Elwood Perez. I like the Sukdulan character, a toll-booth operator whose womanhood is challenged by her husband’s inability to stand up to the situation."
Already, Katya (whose family owns the Qualiprint Printing Press) is conditioning herself for unsavory stories that might be cooked up now that she has gone bold.
"I have nothing to hide," she said. "I dare anybody to prove whatever manufactured story he or she would come up with."
Her role models are Joyce Jimenez and Rosanna Roces.
"Joyce is sweet and forever smiling, hindi cheap. Rosanna is the same, hindi bastusin," said Katya who makes it a point to dress decently in public. "Like Rosanna, I can be brutally frank, especially when I believe I’m right."
The word sukdulan (rough English translation: the ultimate) might just be the right adjective to describe Katya Santos.
Sweet in the outside, but...
• Congratulations to Ogie Diaz who, together with Roselle Manahan, is taking over the timeslot (2:30 to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday) to be vacated by Inday Badiday’s Careful, Careful on DzMM effective today. Ogie and Roselle’s new show is aptly titled Ms. M... Ms. O... Mismo! It’s all about showbiz news and the on-air blind items Ogie has become (in?)famous for. Tune in and have a delightful afternoon.
• Frederick Peralta is happy with the Best Actor win of Yul Servo (for Batang West Side) at the recent Brussels Filmfest. But Frederick would be happier if Yul’s producer, Tony Veloria, would pay for the three Barong Tagalog that Yul wore in that event, worth P48,000. Frederick has been calling up Tony who "couldn’t be reached," according to Frederick. "If he has time," said Frederick, "Tony can pick up from my shop the two checks that bounced." ’Yon lang po!