It’s been four years now. But Athmeeya Rajan still speaks with the tenderness of a newcomer. Becoming an actor had not been in her plans. She wished to do journalism or else clinical psychology. But when her elder sister Athira went for B.Sc. Nursing, her mother sent Athmeeya too, in the same path. It is during her nursing course that producer Seven Arts Mohan suggested she try acting. Both of them hail from Kannur. Athmeeya was interested but she finished her course first. And then came one movie after another, but she took it slow. And in her fifth year, is doing her fifth film — Kaaviyyan.
“The truth is that I am not still so confident about being in this field. I also have plans to go abroad where my sisters live, and study for MBA,” Athmeeya says. It has somehow got delayed as she kept alternating between Tamil and Malayalam films. “That was not planned either, it somehow came that way.” And the first good offer she got had been in Manam Kothi Paravai, a Tamil film opposite Sivakarthikeyan. “I didn’t know Tamil at all and they’d all avoid talking to me in any other language so I would learn.” The second film came in Malayalam — Rose Guitarinaal by Ranjan Pramod. “He is very cool and gives you all the freedom. After a take, if I ask him, was it ok, he will ask me back, was it ok,” she laughs.
The third film again came in Tamil — Pongadi Neengalum Unga Kadhalum, directed by Ramakrishnan and in her fourth she promptly came back to Malayalam. “That was Amoeba, which won the second best film award this year, the film on the endosulfan tragedy.” She had played one of the victims, the daughter of actor Indrans. In Rose Guitarinal she had played Jagadeesh’s daughter. It’s been such a mix of senior and new artistes always. “It’s all of them who had made it easier for me to work in this field.” After four films, she’s slightly more confident than her first days and has high hopes for Kavviyyan, her newest, opposite Shaam, and with another female lead, Sridevi Kumar.
