IT was the most unlikely place for a mechanical engineering graduate from one of India’s most reputed institutes to land up. Kaniha was pursuing her third year at college when tinselville beckoned, but the cute and coy actress recollects she never felt out of place when she stepped into the world of glamour and glitz eight years back. “At first I was a bit apprehensive since screenland is a world full of rumours and filthy stories. But my first film Five Star was a Mani Ratnam production and after interacting with him I got convinced. It was a youth oriented film and most of the actors were of the same age group. So I never felt like a fish out of water. Five Star was pure fun,” says the actress.
Once her first film was out Kaniha was flooded with offers but she didn’t bat an eyelid before rejecting roles from Shankar, P C Sreeram and Cheran, raising eyebrows in film circuits. “I was offered Sneha’s role in Autograph, but I was very serious about my studies and didn’t want to take up anything that would make my academics suffer,” she says. After getting her degree in engineering she felt very safe and started thinking of a career in films.
While her classmates were busy looking for jobs and applying to foreign universities, Kaniha ventured into the Telugu and Kannada industries and struck gold. The actress who has played notable characters in all south Indian languages says she is equally comfortable with all the industries. “Tamil is my mother tongue and I love Malayalam films for their quality. Right now I am a proud member of the Malayalam film fraternity. Kannada was a bit difficult first. But since I have a flair for languages I kind of managed it.” “I put my 100% into performance and I believe that more than looks it’s performance that makes an artist. Once inside the industry I have always felt like being in a corporate. Till today I have experienced only positive vibes from the industry that is supposed to be unsafe for girls,” she gets candid about her experiences in film world.
Bhagyadevatha introduced Kaniha in Kerala as the girl-next-door full of naivety and charm. “ It was not difficult playing the shy and simple Daisy since I am also shy and quiet by nature. The only requirement was to fine-tune my body language to suit a village Christian girl.” The actress says her role as Kaitheri Makkom in the opulent biopic Pazhassi Raja is a dream come true for her. “Every actress dreams of a role in a period film. It’s a film that thrilled me from day one. When I got a call from the director I was ignorant about the legend of Pazhassi Raja and the gravity of the role I was offered. I went there very casually dressed and ‘you look very kiddish’ was Hariharan sir’s first reaction on seeing me.” Later Hariharan explained to her that he was looking for a thampurati, a queen, not a kid. “I had with me a DVD of Godfather, a Tamil film in which I acted with Ajit. In one of the song sequences I appear in the getup of a maharani and I left the DVD there. After watching it he said he was impressed by the transformation and asked me for a costume trial with dialogues.
Later he called up to say that he had found his Makkom from the 35 actresses he screentested for the role and it was me,” she chirps.
Kaniha belongs to the league of actresses who are active on the silver screen even after marriage. The actress is married to a US based software engineer and has learned to perfectly balance her home and profession. “I have been doing this balancing act all my life. First it was films and studies, then it was US and India, and now it’s marriage and acting,” she smiles.
Kaniha was a bit apprehensive about approaching Hariharan after her marriage was fixed. “I felt it was against professional ethics. But when I went to him he blessed me and said he was very happy that this was happening while Pazhassi Raja was being canned. That was an emotional moment and I too felt like his daughter,” she recounts.
Kaniha, a trained vocalist who has studied carnatic music for six years was into music shows even before her foray into films.
In her latest project My Big Father she once again teams up with Jayaram.
“Jayaram is such a lively and lighthearted person and it’s real fun to be around him. Bhagadevatha made our pair click and I am really happy to work with him again. Right now I am waiting for the release of Pazhassi Raja with my fingers crossed,” she signs off with a smile.
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