BENGALURU: Social media has been abuzz with Tamil music video Magizhini, which is making waves owing to its new-age content. It happens to be the first song in Tamil to zoom in on the LGBT community. And Gouri Kishan, who rose to fame with her performance as the young Janaki Devi in the Tamil romantic movie 96 which starred Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha as lead characters, is again making headlines with this music video.
Speaking to CE about the project written and directed by VG Balasubramanian, Kishan says, “Bharatanatyam dancer Anagha and I carry forward the story in the music video. It’s a story about my character’s parents finding out that she’s a lesbian. It is also about my dance partner Anagha who shifts to Chennai.”
According to the storyline, the two get attracted to each other during a Bharatanatyam practice session. “ I loved that a male director has thought this through so well. It shows a woman’s sensitive feelings, emotions and highlights gender binary with it,” says the 22-year-old actor, who has also been seen in Master as Savitha and as Pozhilal in Karnan.
The video released on YouTube earlier this week has more than 2.4 million views. “Many say that you should create content that people want to see but I don’t think that’s true. If the quality is spoken with sensitivity, the audience will accept it too,” says Kishan.
The music video was shot right after the first wave of Covid-19. Kishan was still pursuing her final year of Journalism, English and Psychology at Christ University. So, how did she manage films and her college work? “It was so tough,” she exclaims, adding, “But I had great support from all my teachers and the management. I made sure that I kept my grades up, and completed all my projects.”
Kishan, a trained classical dancer, had lost touch with the artform for a few years. However, for the music video she had to restart practice once again. “The initial training with choreographer Vishwakiran Nambi was done online, and then Anagha and I met at her home for the parts where we needed to work together,” she says, adding that the team eventually went to Chennai to complete the project.
When asked if the under seven-minute video was an easier task than acting in her movies for her, she says, “I try my best not to distinguish my projects like that. At the end of the day, it’s our job and we still have to shoot and do all the work.”
During the lockdown last year, Kishan kept herself busy. “I learnt to read and write Tamil and screenwriting. I took to yoga as well,” says Kishan, who is currently shooting for a film in Kerala, and is looking forward to the release of her other projects on OTT platforms and at multiplexes.