Nithya Menon carved a niche for
herself as a Malayalam actor
with her small role in Kerala Cafe.
After that, she forayed into
Tamil and Telugu film industries.
In this interview, Nithya tells Radhika Rajamani about acting in
Santosh Sivan’ s Urumi, where she plays a princess.
Check out the trailer for a
closer look at the film.
What made you take up Urumi?
I met Santosh Sivan when I was
shooting for Lenin Rajendran’ s film Makara Manju (on Raja Ravi
Varma). We became friends. He
told me he wanted to write a
film for me. He had a million ideas
and used to bounce them off me.
Then he came up with the Urumi script and said that he had a
beautiful role which only I could
play. Much of the character is
based on Santosh’ s perception of who I am.
Was the fact that it was a
historical film that made you sign
it?
I would have done it either way,
whether it was a historical or not. Since he said it was a role
written for me, I did it. It was
between friends. I have never
done a historical character. For
me, it was interesting to see
how I would look like. What was appealing about the
script?
When I first heard the Urumi
script, I was surprised, shocked
and excited. It was a strong
script with a reference to the past. It had fact mixed with
fiction. To incorporate facts into
a film and introduce fictional
characters was interesting. I
loved the script.
Urumi is such a huge canvas — a landmark film in Malayalam. How
do you feel to have acted in
such a film?
I don’ t look at it that way. I am doing a film, I hear the script,
love it, and do it.
What’ s your role all about? I play a Chirakkal princess named
Bala. The role has a comical
undertone to it. I am paired
opposite Prabhu Deva. While the
love track between Prithviraj
and Genelia is intense, the one between Prabhu Deva and me is
funny. I play an innocent, young,
child-like, attractive girl.
Did you have to prepare for the
role as it’ s a period film? I don’ t prepare for any role. I go on the sets and do it.
Is it based on the brief given by
Sivan then?
It was all based on an informal
brief Santosh Sivan that gave.
How was the shoot? It was tedious and the terrain
was difficult. On screen, it looks
beautiful but we shot standing in
slush almost 24/7. People got
foot infections. It was laborious.
Wearing all the jewellery and doing the hair was not easy.
Do you have any scenes with
Genelia, Prithviraj, Tabu and
Vidya Balan?
I had very few scenes with
Genelia, so there wasn’ t much of an interaction. I shot scenes with
Amol Gupte, Prithvi, Prabhu Deva
and Jagathy Sir. I have worked
with Prithvi and Jagathy Sir
before. I was honoured to work
with Amol Gupte. He is a brilliant person. To share space with
person of that calibre was the
best part of the film for me.
I have not shared the screen
with Tabu and Vidya Balan.
How was it acting with Prabhu
Deva?
I was doing a film with Prabhu
Deva for the first time. He’ s a nice, good and down-to-earth
person. In fact, he will give up his
chair for you. He’ s very funny and would crack you up on the
sets. Many times we had to cut
scenes because I would be
laughing, thanks to Prabhu Deva.
Working with him was fun.
How was it working with Sivan as a director?
I knew Santosh Sivan as a
person. So it was more like
working with a person you know
well. He’ s got his style, he’ s very informal, goes with the
flow. He’ s a brilliant cinematographer. Visually, he’ s on a different level.
How was the experience of
working in Urumi?
Experience involves everything.
As a film, it was difficult to do.
Geographically it was a difficult terrain (Malshej Ghat in
Maharashtra). The weather was
rainy and cold and I don’ t like cold weather. I worked, enjoyed
and came out.
I was simultaneously shooting for
three films — Karmayogi (Malayalam), Veppam (Tamil) and
the last bits of Ala Modalaindi
(Telugu). So I would feel drained
out.
Do you find it easy to quickly
shed the character you play? Why not? I shed it when camera
goes cut. When they say action, I
am into it completely and forget
everything around. When they
say cut, I am back to myself.
Are you game to do more period/historical films?
Why not? I enjoy doing them.
Karmayogi is an adaptation of
Hamlet set in a period. Makara
Manju is based on Ravi Varma. I
like period films, as everything is traditional in them.
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