Twentieth something film old, the beautiful Haripriya has already made her presence felt in the Kannada, Tamil and Telugu film industry. And now, the Kannada beauty is all set for her debut in Malayalam with the film ‘Thiruvampadi Thampan’ helmed by ‘Shikkar’ fame director Padmakumar. The icing on the cake is the fact that she stars opposite none other than Jayaram in the film.
An ardent fan of Mohanlal, Mammootty, Jayaram and Prithviraj, Haripriya says she has seen the Mammootty starrer ‘Mayavi’ thrice. She even went on to act in its Tamil version. Haripriya forayed into acting through ‘Badhi’, a Tulu movie in 2007, when she was sixteen. ‘Manasugula Mathu Madhura’ (2008) was her first Kannada movie which was not so successful.
Her Telugu movie ‘Takita Takita’ with Harshavardhan in 2010 was a hit though. ‘Kanagavel Kaaka’, opposite Karan, which released the same year gave her a break in Tamil.
Haripriya who recently got a big hit in Tamil with Cheran-directed ‘Muran’, is delighted to have got the opportunity to act in a Malayalam film. Not many are surprised as they believe, the actress has the look of a ‘Malayali’.
One of the reasons why Haripriya is so eager about her innings in Malayalam is because she believes that only heroines with a certain ‘natural, unmade look’ can sustain here.
The movie tells the story of an elephant contractor, Thiruvampadi Mathan Tharakan, played by Jayaram. Haripriya plays Sindhu, his love interest. She says, “Mine is a typical Keralite character, who is draped in saree, with a large bindi. Mathan brings elephants from Bihar to Kerala and faces several obstacles in the way. I have my own part to play in the movie,” she says.
Haripriya believes in the Malayalam film industry’s ability to bring out the best in actors and says that her own role is quite challenging.
“The first schedule of the movie was shot at Guruvayur Devaswom elephant sanctuary near Thrissur. We had a gala time there. Compared to other industries which are a little formal, I found the set here very homely. There are veteran actors like Nedumudi Venu and Jagathi Sreekumar who taught me some important lessons in acting”.
Like many actors who make a transition from one industry to the other, Haripriya too had some initial hiccups while speaking Malayalam. She says out of all the South Indian languages, Malayalam is the most difficult. “But I don’t like someone else dubbing for me. So I wrote all the dialogues in Tamil and delivered them. I felt it somewhat easy as both Tamil and Malayalam have certain common words. Director Padmakumar helped me throughout. He was calm and collected and many a times, I would be scared that he would shout at me if I made a mistake. He never did. He would only gently take me to the projector and point out what was wrong,” says the 20-year-old.
She is also full of praise for her senior co-star Jayaram. “He would enliven the sets with his jokes, and always kept me in excellent spirits. He helped me to adapt to the role of Sindhu.”
'Thiruvampadi Thamban', written by Suresh Babu is being produced by Gini Cinema. Ouseppachan is the music director. The movie also has Kishore,T GRavi, Thampi Ramayya, Suraj Venjaramood, Saddiq and Kalabhavan Mani.