The south Indian audience can never get over the ‘Mayuri’ impact adequately enough to relish the vamp image that Sudha Chandran sports in Hindi soaps. In her sari and sleeveless choli, Sudha looked more akin to Romola Sikand of ‘Kahin Kizi Roz’ than Mayuri of a distant yore. Her occasional utterances in chaste Malayalam and the visible excitement in shooting in her home state gave a lost-and-found vibe to the rendezvous.
Of eyes and negative roles
She believes that her eyes are too small, a faith cemented by her mother who used to be sorry that she did not bequeath the characteristic large and dark Malayali eyes. “They are really small without makeup,” she says. Maybe that partly explains why she overdoes her eye makeup on screen, particularly for the Ekta Kapoor roles. “At a time when the industry made me think that cry baby roles were all I could do, Ekta offered me this negative character who was also classy and stylish. As Romola, I became a style icon and there was no looking back.”
Sane pay packages, cheers!
She had once said that serial actors are overpaid. “I think I was the first actor to have made such a remark. But it was true. There was money coming in like crazy. We used to be paid huge sums per serial per day. My father once asked me, ‘Are you really earning this money?’ Things had to stabilise at some point of time and now I think we are getting the ‘right’ money.”
Acting in films
“I did do a couple of films after ‘Mayuri’. But ‘Mayuri’ should not have been a launching pad for any actor. There was too much expectation among the audience after that. The films I did flopped back to back. And I decided to take a sabbatical break. I had academics (she is a postgraduate in Economics) and dance to turn to. It was after a while that the break in serials happened.” The hitch for South Indian actors wanting to enter Hindi soaps is the in-sync dubbing, she says. The actors speak into a lapel mike without any prompting and it is recorded on the spot. “So language fluency becomes a must which is why it is difficult for non-Hindi speakers.”
Does she think the big screen has a frugal platter to offer to female actors?
“When there are 100 films being made, you cannot ask for a variety of roles. But there are good female characters being made. Today I have the freedom to make a choice about doing a film. I have another career that comes with a handsome pay. So I don’t have to go and do a bad film and make a fool of myself. If good roles come my way, I will act in films.”
‘Mayuri’, the milestone
“When I started dancing with an artificial leg, it attracted a lot of attention. That's how the idea of the film came up. But when my father and I were flown down to Hyderabad to give them a first-hand account of my life, they had no idea of casting me in the role. But once Ramoji Rao saw me, he wanted me in the role.” Sudha has a way of finding a reason to celebrate everything. She celebrates her accident because it gave her the career and the “good friend I have in my husband.”
Ravi Dang is an assistant director and also manages the Sudha Chandran Dance Academy in Mumbai.
No issues playing mother
She made a forgettable debut in Malayalam as mother to Bala in the Mohanlal-starrer ‘Alexander the Great.’ Sudha has no worries about getting typecast. “For me, once a role is done, it’s over. I don’t believe in the carried over image, not even when I do negative roles.”
Acting with Mohanlal
“He is one of the best actors around. When I was shooting for a Hindi serial Bihar village, some journos who heard that I was from Kerala, requested me to give them Mohanlal’s phone number! I felt proud to belong to the land of such a great actor.”
Reality shows in Malayalam
Sudha is now on the judging panel of Amrita TV’s ‘Super Dancer Junior 2’. She, who had danced her way to the pinnacle of will power with her artificial leg, is all praise for the little dancers. “When I was invited for the show, I firmly believed that all real talent had found their way to the North. But seeing these children, I was amazed at the abundance of talent here.”
Will we see more of her down South?
“I would love to do more Malayalam films.” She visits Kerala every year to offer prayers at the Koodalmanikkam temple at Irinjalakkuda where she has her ancestral home. But this time, she has another desire to fulfill - a meeting with Mata Amritanandamayi.
“I need that comforting hand on my head because my mother passed away and I miss her.”