It’s her birthday today, and as an exclusive, Priyamani laughs and tells us she is 25 years old. The actress, who post ‘Paruthiveeran’ consciously took to commercial films like Malaikottai and Drona , gets back with a powerful, headstrong character in Maniratnam’s ‘Raavana’.
“It was an honour in itself, to be called personally by Maniratnam, asking if I’d be interested in doing a role in his film. And why wouldn’t I? He is an institution in himself,” gushes the actress, who plays the same role in the Hindi and Tamil versions of the film. This film will mark her Bollywood debut as well.
There’s not a lot she can speak about the project, yet, but she says it has been an experience of a lifetime, with some of the best actors in the country.
About the man who has made the project feature on the A-list of movies, she says, “I have worked with directors who give artistes their creative freedom.
Maniratnam is clearly in that league. Here’s a director who actually tells his artistes they do not necessarily have to stick to their dialogues. He wants the emotion right, the expressions can be our choice,” she gushes, adding that the director is open to suggestions and makes changes in case they really are sensible.
An actress who has worked with seasoned hands like Balu Mahendra, Ameer and Maniratnam, Priyamani is also excited about her role, per se, which she clarifies as not negative. “The character is strongwilled, and is important to the script. This is yet another performance-based role like ‘Muthazhagu’ in ‘Paruthiveeran’ and is definitely not negative,” she then says.
Apart from Maniratnam’s ‘Raavana’, the actress has two films, ‘Ninaithaale Inikkum’ and ‘Aarumugham’, with Pritviraj and Bharath, waiting to hit screens this month. She hasn’t signed films apart from these, as she knows as well as everyone else what change a Maniratnam film can do to an artiste’s career.
Abhishek is our usual prankster
A double delight it definitely is for the actress, working with both the Tamil and Hindi cast of the film. “Abhishek Bachchan is all fun on the sets. And having worked with Maniratnam sir earlier, he is close to him and makes pranks even on Maniratnam sir,” she says, calling him the real ‘Cool Dude.’
When Maniratnam congratulated
The diffidence that comes when working with an ace didn’t elude Priyamani as well. But today, having almost completed shoot for her portions of the film, Priyamani recalls the instance when the crew came up to her and applauded her performance.
“It was a very emotional scene and I guess I convinced everybody with my crying.”
‘I still haven’t met Aishwarya Rai’
Despite being in both versions of the film, Priyamani says she hasn’t met Aishwayra Rai. This is because the duo does not share even one scene with each other.
Shooting for a comedy now
The actress is currently in Coorg shooting for a Telugu comedy, Raam . She says she chose this role because she wanted a break from serious films.
“ Paruthiveeran happens only once.
It’s a classic, I don’t look for a film like it all the time,” is her refrain for doing films like Drona and Raam.
sharadha@epmltd.com