Former Miss Karnataka Parvati Nair loved studies. The Tamil superhit film The Greatest of All Time (GOAT) actor topped her batch at the Manipal Institute of Technology. So, how did she find her footing in movies? “I always wanted to be a fashion designer and loved to paint. While I did some theatre, my English teacher in school told me that I was a good actor and should aim for Bollywood.” At that time, Nair did not think much of it. However, her teacher’s words somehow remained stuck in her head.
Nair did a television show during her Class X summer break. After she joined her engineering course, she had the opportunity to do a short film made by the Manipal Institute of Communication (MIC). The film was showcased at many film festivals.
“I really enjoyed working on that project, but my parents were not keen on me pursuing a career in the film industry. I, however, did a few advertisements. My first Malayalam film, Poppins was an anthology that needed me to shoot for a few hours.”
In 2012, she also did Yakshi: Faithfully Yours, a Malayalam romantic fantasy film that had a theatrical release in a few halls, and was also dubbed in Hindi. It made its way to television channels as well. “I also did a coming-of-age film Nee Ko Njaa Cha in Malayalam.”
Even though Nair rejected many successful films initially, she admits that there was never a dearth of offers that saw her do films like Story Kathe, Ninayathe, Koditta Idangalai Nirappuga, Enkitta Mothathe, Overtake, Nimir, 83, Dhoomam, and Super Zindagi, among others.
“Only mainstream movies make you a commercial star. With time, there was a lot of convincing that happened, and my elder brother also spoke to my parents to let me pursue a career in the movie industry.”
Admitting that the film industry has changed over the last decade, especially for women, Nair says, “Senior actresses were retiring when I started as they were not finding roles after getting married. Now, the trend has quite changed.” For someone who prefers a narration of a script over reading it, she says that scenes are best understood from the perspective of the director. “
Currently, she is excited about Mr Rani and says that it is a complete entertainer. “You will be glued the screen from start to end. It’s entertaining and funny. The emotional scenes have also been pulled off well. It is great that the other actors in the movie are from a theatre background. Deepak Subramanya, who plays the lead, has done a great job of playing a woman in the film.”
Nair believes that her character in Mr Rani is one of her best performances in her career so far. “It is letting me explore a completely different genre,” she says. Having worked with big stars like Thalapathy Vijay and Udhayanidhi Stalin, she humorously says that people who she has worked with are switching to political careers.
“I met Vijay for the first time on set and can say that he is very simple, friendly, and easygoing.” Looking ahead, the actor has two more releases in Tamil—Unpaarvayil and Aalambana, a fantasy movie that she counts as one of her best performances. “I am working on a female-orientated thriller film, and have a few narrations lined up that I am looking forward to,” she adds.