The strong presence

After Mani Ratnam’s captivating and dynamic appearance in the City, it was acclaimed actress Suhasini Mani Ratnam’s turn. At the eighth edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival held at Orion Mall, Rajajinagar she engaged the audience by sharing some insightful acting tips, conducting a writing and acting workshop and talking about her favourite moments and film trivia on set with star-struck aspiring actors, directors and fans.

The bold star spoke about socially relevant issues and started her conversation with Prakash Belwadi about the need for women to express, write and direct their own roles and the need for their emotional independence.

     She said, “The digital space has paved way for women to enter cinema as cameras are now inhabiting spaces such as the kitchen and the bedroom; where the woman earlier was. However, no amount of technology will help if woman don’t come out and write their roles.

Many characters are being written and captured by men. But that necessarily is not changing the perception of women being nurturing creatures and homemakers. To break that stereotypically-created woman, we have to come up and write stories about women and also direct them.”

      In today’s era where sweeping changes have occurred in the film industry, Suhasini lauded technology and said that it has made cinema very accessible for aspirants but she also cautioned about technology being overused and abused in the industry.

When praised for her acting prowess in movies like ‘Bandhana’ and ‘Amrutha Varshini’, and ‘Sindhu Bhairavi’ and ‘Manathil Uruthi Vendum’, she spoke about the importance of regional languages in an English speaking country and the challenge of remakes. She also let out a ‘secret’ — she is currently writing the Tamil and Telugu script for the Bollywood movie ‘Queen’.

     “The movie has a very strong Punjabi culture but while rewriting the script, I have to find a way to take the essence of the story and adapt it in the context of a Tamil speaking society. Language is also important to know how to abuse your husband,” she laughed.

      Despite her diverse, vast film-career, the one movie Suhasini wishes that she acted in was ‘Piku’, essaying Deepika Padukone’s role.

She concluded her session by giving out a motto for actors and writers. “An actor should never settle to be just a character in someone else's story, when you can be the author of your own. A writer should be a voice and not an echo.”