Chamber drama seems to be the flavor du jour in Sakshi Agarwal's career. The actor, who recently starred in Ring Ring (2025), returns to the genre with Theeyor Koodam, which is set to release on April 24. Interestingly, both these films were helmed by the same director, Sakthivel. "Writing such scripts has become a habit for Sakthivel. This is no mean feat, and it takes a lot of work and brainstorming to come up with an interesting screenplay that unfolds in one place again and again. He loves doing scripts like this," begins Sakshi, adding, "This is a chamber drama with an element of a survival thriller in it. My character, Diya, fights to protect an orphanage and ends up in a place, clubbed along with a few others, with intentions and agendas of their own. Who survives the place is what the film is about."
Elaborating more on the challenges the director faced in writing, Sakshi notes, "There are a lot of things to take care of when writing a story that unfolds in a single place. Apart from an engaging screenplay and interesting characters, meticulous care needs to go into even the shots and frames. Repetitive shots will make the film boring. So a lot needs to be done even on the technical front." Unwilling to reveal who the theeyavar (bad) and nallavar (good) in the film are, Sakshi says, "One man's hero is another man's villain (laughs). Every character inside the building has their own intentions. Even in life, you cannot be a good person in everyone's story. We leave it to the audience to decide for themselves who is good and who is bad."
Sakshi credits the film and the team for helping her improve as an actor, as such projects test how much she can hold the film with her performance. "I was happy that I grew in confidence after getting this role. The film was a self-discovery as I had to keep improvising and pushing limits to see how much I can hold. Also, the combination of the actors was interesting," shares Sakshi, who believes that the journey was comfortable as she worked with a very familiar team. "I worked with the same director, and team in Ring Ring and the anthology film 4 Sorry. I knew exactly what would happen on the sets and what was expected of me. I understood their constraints, and when there were days when we didn't even have food breaks, the travel was smooth. In fact, I used to take a bite in between shots. We had an unspoken agreement of sorts. With another team, I am not sure if I would do all this."
Sakshi reveals an interesting challenge she personally faced while working in chamber dramas. "What I didn't like about doing a chamber drama is that I don't get to wear different dresses, or put on makeup (laughs). In fact, I've asked Sakthivel to work on stories where I get to wear a lot of costumes. Jokes apart, with every scene, you get excited about what happens next. With a boring script, you may feel tired, but with Theeyor Koodam, the suspense the next scene holds balances the familiarity," she says, adding that there is a Subramaniapuram touch in the film. "Sasi sir would have said in an interview that he didn't reveal the tragic climax and separation her character would undergo to Swati, as she may not emote naturally in her scenes with Jai. Similarly, I was not told the climax till we shot it. I was taken aback on hearing how the film ends. I was sure that if I were made privy to the final twist, I wouldn't have performed as I did. Also, I was mentally occupied with my own theories of what would happen in the end, and that too helped me not get bored."
Praising her co-stars, Sakshi says that they were instrumental in helping others get comfortable in their respective characters. "Be it Java Sundaresan sir, Danny, Vaiyapuri sir, and Vasanthi mam, now popularly known as Agent Tina. I have done a lot of shows with Vasanthi ma'am; it was a delight to see her in the space of an actor. We had a blast on the sets. We had great fun. When it comes to the shot, there is a fantastic make-believe that worked in our combination. We made sure we are well into the characters we played," says Sakshi, who signs off by assuring that Theeyor Koodam will be anything but generic. "The film will definitely offer something interesting and different."