For Saranya Ravichandran, acting across different mediums is the same. She says, “I have acted in theatre plays, films, and TV series. Acting across all of those forms is the same. But the difference lies in the way an audience reacts to it. In a theatre play, we get a firsthand reception. For theatres, the reception can be immediate or delayed. In OTT, we get an added value of a wide range of audience being able to watch a project”. With a background in theatre, starring in plays like Vaasanai, directed by actor Nassar, Saranya has a solid background when it comes to acting.
One of her upcoming projects is Varsha Bharath’s much-anticipated film, Bad Girl. Saranya recalls how Varsha was very specific about her instructions to actors, including the number of times they were allowed to blink in a scene. ”She has a clear vision about what the output should look like. She doesn't like actors performing; she expects that they become the character.” The film, Saranya says, "is about the different phases of a girl’s life and captures her struggles, both obvious and subtle. It's about a character who has to take charge of her life." She goes on to elaborate on the different types of pressure every girl faces. "Society places a lot of expectations on us. Even those who put us on a pedestal burden us with their expectations of how we should be. All of this pressure is crippling. We would rather not have to deal with it."
Saranya remembers that her first interaction with Varsha left her making a difficult choice. “I had to miss being a part of Vanangaan when she offered me a role in this film. But it all came to fruition when director Vetri Maaran appreciated my performance after watching a preview of this film.” The Vada Chennai director, incidentally, is presenting the film along with Anurag Kashyap. Given Vetri Maaran's insistence on politically correct cinema, we ask Saranya about the state of colourism in the Tamil film industry. She is prompt with her response. “Fair-skinned actors are still happy to play dark-skinned characters, even if it means that they have to apply black paint. This cannot happen. Sure, there's a small change, but this needs to be more pronounced."