BENGALURU: When it comes to cinema, portrayal of Dalit women is always a welcome sight. In her latest movie Por, actor Nithya Shri plays the character of Venilla, an ambitious Dalit woman who fights for her cause. While preparing for her role, Nithya was very particular to not make it a caricature of any of the Dalit female characters that she has previously seen on screen. Now that the film is out, the actor is happy with how her character has turned out.
Nithya recalls that the preparation for the role was crucial for her. “I took a lot of help from the director [Bejoy Nambiar], and he was very clear as to how he wanted Venilla to be. We had a lot of table reads along with the entire cast and crew. Because it was during the pandemic, we had Zoom meetings to help me understand her character, in terms of the industry she is in and the context of where she’s coming from. I had to understand the director’s vision and what she is fighting for,” she adds.
Set against the backdrop of a college festival, Por – with an ensemble cast of TJ Bhanu, Arjun Das, and Kalidas Jayaram – explores the intricate dynamics between two friends whose paths diverge. Venilla, Nithya says, is a fiercely independent woman ‘who is pitted against a politician’s daughter and they are both in a relationship, which has been hinted extremely subtly in the film’. She gives credit for her knowledge of movie-making to Nambiar.
“I first met Bejoy on the sets of Mani Ratnam’s Kaatru Veliyidai (2017) which starred Karthi and Aditi Rao Hydari. I played the role of Karthi’s sister and he was just another assistant director(AD) on set. I didn’t realise who he was then and I used to talk to him as normally as I would talk to any other person. Much later, towards the end of the film, I realised that he is the director of cult classics like Shaitan (2011). And then he called me for Solo (2017) starring Dulquer Salmaan,” says Nithya while taking a trip down the memory lane.
After being in front of the camera for so long, Nithya also wanted to learn more about the art of filmmaking. “I don’t have anybody in the industry who could teach me about films but I was extremely passionate about it. I wanted to learn more so he was sweet enough to ask me to be his AD on set,” she says. When she got a call for Por, she was unsure if it was for an acting opportunity or to assist him on the sets.
“He said this time he wanted me to be a part of the acting team. I sent him my test sometime around 2022 and that’s how Por started for me,” says Nithya. Besides Por, she is also part of the web series Codeyil Iruvar which is out on the YouTube channel Parthabangal. “I play a character called Vimala who again is a big politician’s daughter and she is left at the altar. It was a different experience being in a web series,” she says.