She may just have done a horror movie, but Nikki Galrani is quite candid when she says, “I am such a chicken when it comes to watching them.” In fact, the actor who has been on quite a roll since last year, with films like ‘Ajith’ (the Kannada remake of Paiyaa) and ‘Vellimoonga’ tells us that the last time she watched one she actually let out a shrill scream in the middle of the theatre! “My friends had dared me to watch ‘The Conjuring’,” she recalls. “And I was already holding hands on either side of me when I felt something really creepy near my foot. One of them had put it there as a joke,” she says.
Chatting with the actor after her Pongal release ‘Darling’ - the horror-comedy that marks her debut in Kollywood alongside GV Prakash, Nikki looks quite the opposite of her dark-eyed ‘possessed’ self onscreen. She has had little sleep, but looks more alive than the camera crew waiting in line for an interview. “I had to watch the movie the day it released. So I managed to make the 11 pm show at Mayajaal last night, with a bunch of my friends,” she says. Turns out it was house full, so Nikki and gang had to settle for plastic chairs in the back! “But it was a blast, the movie got over at 2 am, I got back at 5 am and...here I am now...” she rattles away at several miles an hour with an enthusiasm that is infectious.
While the movie is meant to thrill and indulge you with a generous dose of giggles, courtesy Nikki’s frequent ‘pei’ interruptions, the actor is candid in saying her time offscreen while playing the role was anything but fun.
“I would get frequent headaches and nightmares, because of all the scary images and screams floating around in my head,” she remembers.
And to keep her mother from watching her takes in that disturbing ‘pei’ state, she adds, “I would actually insist that the crew keep her locked away in another room.”
With sleepless nights behind her though, the 25-year-old says the new year is looking up.
“I’ve got seven releases this year,” she counts them on her fingers. This includes an already completed ‘Yagavarayinum Naa Kaakka’ with Aadhi that has been shot as a bilingual in both Tamil and Telugu. “I’m really excited about YNK’s release because the moment it comes out, I can officially say that I have done films in all four South Indian languages,” she says with a smile.