She did an abrupt vanishing act, going off the screen for a while. But Kavya Madhavan says she preferred waiting for something fresh rather than playing xerox roles to the hilt. She might not have travelled in a She Taxi before, but the actress is now busy honing her driving skills to swing the steering for Saji Surendran’s next. After a year-long hiatus Kavya seems to be back where she belongs, doing back-to-back films. “Though I have committed a handful of films ‘She Taxi’ will be the first to go on floors,” says the actress.
Kavya says during the last few months she went through a slew of scripts. “I was offered many good films, but all the characters had some resemblance to my previous roles. I didn’t want to do another ‘Gaddama’ and repeat myself,” she says. Along the lines of his previous films, Saji Surendren’s ‘She Taxi’ is expected to be another laugh riot revolving around the life of a female taxi driver. “It’s a road movie and I play Devayani, who ends up behind the wheel by chance,” Kavya says about the film in which she is paired opposite Anoop Menon. The actress gave the nod when she felt it was something that she hasn’t laid her hands before. “I think I will be the first lady taxi driver in Malayalam cinema. Then, I am joining hands with the Saji Surendran-Krishna Poojapura-Anoop Menon team for the first time. And to top it all, apart form the routine locations, a major portion of ‘She Taxi’ will be shot in the scenic Coorg,” she says.
Kavya says she planned her reentry through a Jeethu Joseph film which has her in an author-backed performance oriented role. “It’s a woman centric thriller and it was supposed to start soon after ‘Drishyam’. But then he was asked to direct the Tamil remake by Kamal Hassan. So we had to postpone our project and it will go on floors only by next year,” she says.
Suneesh Babu’s untitled debut will be her next in line and the actress says she signed it because of its socially relevant storyline. “I was really touched by the script. Coming from a rural background I could easily relate to it,” she says. The film is woven around a school on the brink of closure. A heroine-oriented narrative, it zooms into the efforts of a teacher who struggles to avoid the close-down. “Malayalam medium schools in the state are facing extinction and soon they will be part of memory. In the film there are just one teacher and student in the school and I was really touched by its theme.” Though she has signed a couple others, Kavya says she can’t divulge any details as she is waiting for the official announcement. “But they are all interesting films, no run-of-the-mill projects,” she says.
Kavya says though her schedule book for 2015 is almost full she is not on any signing spree. “Actually I wanted to do only a couple of films a year taking gaps in between. But the dates got so shuffled that now I am doing back-to-back films. I didn’t plan for this, but then nothing ever happens according to my plans,” she laughs. She says during the break she was engaged in a lot of personal things including her brother’s wedding and clearing some of her B Com papers. “I stayed home, had healthy food and studied for my exams. Earlier I couldn’t find any time for myself so I enjoyed each moment of it,” she signs off.