BENGALURU: The Election season is here, and one can feel the warm-up even in movie theatres. Helmed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale, Article 370 is about the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir in 2019. But keeping the agenda or strategic release time aside, the movie has some good performances to begin the first quarter of the year. Spearheaded by Priyamani and Yami Gautam, the film features seamless performances by both.
Priyamani was convincing when she brought the calm and strategist Rajeshwari Swaminathan to life on screen. The actor recalls the team was convinced that it was going to be a ‘good movie’. “It’s a sensitive topic at the end of the day. The makers were clear right from the start that they wanted this movie to come out,” says Priyamani, who has been anticipating the film being termed as ‘propaganda’.
The resilience of her character Rajeshwari might uncannily remind you of Maya from the Oscar-winning movie Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Maybe because Rajeshwari is a fictional character who is inspired by many characters from real-life events.
However, Priyamani decided to approach it in her own way. “Rajeshwari’s character is a mix of many. I heard about three or four narrations of the entire script. So right there I was able to gauge her character. My character hit the spot,” says Priyamani, adding that she was first approached by Aditya Dhar, the producer and one of the writers of the film.
Considering herself a director’s actor, she says she went ahead with the script. “The team was extremely thorough with the research, so I was given a lot of information on the topic,” the Jawan actor adds.
This was the first time she worked with Gautam and the Bengaluru-based actor, who watched the movie in the city with her family, had nice things to say about her.
“She’s one of the finest actors we have today. She is extremely thorough in her roles. She has a backstory for the character. That’s her process but she has shed blood, sweat, and tears,literally, for the role. She performed it so beautifully,” says Priyamani, who will be next seen in Maidan, opposite Ajay Devgn. She was last seen in the Telugu movie Bhamakalapam 2 and earlier in the Mohanlal-starrer Malayalam film Neru.