Sunaina is just back from an eight-day shoot in Paris and can’t stop raving about it. The actor was in the City of Love, for the shoot of two song sequences with Bharath for the film ‘Thiruthani’, which is being directed by Perarasu.
After ‘Vamsam’, which released in 2010, Sunaina is excited about her first release this year. Moreover, the actor has had a makeover of sorts, shedding the weight she had to gain for ‘Vamsam’, and is looking like a million bucks these days. With so many reasons to be happy, Sunaina talks about the film that’s keeping her on her toes, “I play Sugisha, an orphan girl who is from Chennai,” she reveals. “Incidentally, the character is named after director Perarasu’s two-year-old daughter. We just shot two songs in France; one was set in Paris and the other, in the countryside around the city.”
While Ashok master has choreographed the songs, director Perarasu himself has composed the music. “It was fantastic to shoot during a boat ride on the Seine, with the Eiffel Tower in the backdrop,” she gushes. “I was surprised to see several Tamilians there, who came to greet us,” she says.
‘Thiruthani’ will be Sunaina’s fifth outing. The film, she says, is special to her because it’s the first time she’s trying her hand at some comedy, which revolves around her. “I have done comedy scenes in my films before. But in ‘Thiruthani’, I have a lot of funny lines and some hilarious scenes with Bharath. On screen, I have only comic scenes, no sad ones,” she laughs.
So, how tough was it to handle the comic parts?
“Comedy is a challenge. You can make people relate to you when you’re playing a sad role. But it’s difficult to make audiences laugh, because everyone’s idea of humour is different,” she says. “It helped that director Perarasu has an amazing sense of humour. I worked hard on my dialogue delivery. He gave me greater insight into verbal comedy because he cracks jokes with a straight face! The first two days were tough, but later I got used to it.”
Why the long gap between her films?
“‘Thiruthani’ got delayed, hence this gap. Additionally, after my previous films, I was afraid of being typecast as a village girl,” she justifies. “I waited for the right scripts that would explore a different side to me. Moreover, I had put on weight for ‘Vamsam’ and had to lose it before I could start ‘Thiruthani’. I was completely tanned from head to toe, shooting in the sun for that movie. When I lost those seven kilos and the tan, and reported for the first day of the shoot, Perarasu was delighted.”
The weight loss also prompted the actor to go in for a photo shoot and present the glamorous side of her personality. With several pretty young faces coming into cinema practically every day, doesn’t the competition scare her?
“Not at all. I will be offered what is best for me. At 22, I’m very young and have a long way to go. People may feel that I have been missing in action. But ‘Thiruthani’, with its romance, clean mass entertainment and comedy, has given me excellent scope to perform. It will certainly make up for the lost time,” she concludes.