All set for another intense role

Human existence is as much about limitations as it is about the ability to transcend those limitations. Films like Taare Zameen Par, Paa and My name is Khan, dwelt on disorders and brought onto the big screen real-life characters that thrived in the face of insurmountable adversities.

Actress Priyamani is pretty excited about playing a character that is circumscribed by one such condition and yet thrives. She plays a conjoined twin in Charulatha which will be made in four languages namely, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu.

This may be the first time she’s playing a character like this but the young actress is
known to choose intense roles, ones that challenge and excite her. Her portrayal of a cancer patient in Malayalam film Thirakkatha and her role in Paruthiveeran triggered a sort of new expectations from her among her fans.

Talking about her experience of shooting for her latest venture, she says, “It was quite time-consuming since I was playing both the roles. One thing is for sure that at the end of the movie, people would definitely have a better understanding about what the life of a conjoined twin is like. People would have only read about it or watched it on TV, but the movie will have a better impact.”

When asked if the film was inspired by Thai film ‘Alone’, that’s woven around conjoined twins, she reasons, “We’ve been inspired by a line from the Thai movie, but Charulatha is largely scripted and made in an Indian context and tweaked to suit the Indian psyche,” she reasons.

So has Priyamani done some homework for her character? “Not really, it’s very spontaneous and instinctive. The make-up took nothing less than three hours and we took our time to shoot the scenes. Nothing was hurried. Each twin, has its own characteristic. One is coy and innocent and the other is bold,” she points out.         

And Priyamani has also dubbed for the film, “We’ve dedicated a lot of time to this movie. I have watched a couple of scenes and I feel that the director has done a neat and clean job,” she says.  

Priyamani has also been shooting for Lakshmi where she plays the role of Shivarajkumar’s wife. “The movie has its twists and turns and plenty of edge-of-the-seat moments,” she sums up.