Bold and beautiful

Maheshinte Prathikaram was a milestone in Malayalam cinema. The movie was much appreciated for its freshness, story and brilliant performances from the artistes. Aparna Balamurali was one of those performers; she gave life to the bold Jimsy. That role paved way to many vivacious characters, cementing her place in the industry. Her singing talent was also explored in Maheshinte Prathikaram, which made her one of the multitalented actors in the industry. Known to be choosy about her characters, she has some exciting projects in her kitty. 

Aparna has completed shooting for Jeethu Joseph’s Mr. & Ms. Rowdy. The movie marks her first collaboration with Jeethu and Kalidas. Her character Poornima stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the one played by Kalidas. “The movie is a fun entertainer. Unlike Jeethu sir’s other movies, this will be a comedy entertainer. Poornima is a good character and can be called hyperactive. 

Maybe, her circumstances made her hyperactive,” says Aparna. She says she really enjoyed acting with Kalidas. Vishnu Govindan, Ganapathi, Sarath and Shebin play the other important characters, and she affirms that she got attached with the gang very soon. “Our off-screen chemistry will definitely reflect onscreen, too. Our friendship has really helped the movie. I got along well with Kalidas from the beginning. We already knew each other as we had met during AMMA’s stage show. But we had never expected we would be doing a movie together soon.” 

Jeethu Joseph is considered as a master director and Aparna is really happy to have worked with him. “Maybe, this was the first time I was working with a director with greater experience. That really makes us tensed and scared. However, Jeethu sir was very cool and made everyone comfortable with his behaviour. The movie’s story is by his wife Linta chechi and they were very much involved in the movie. More than a director-actor relationship, we were like a family. The rapport we developed made our acting comfortable and that will be surely seen on screen.” 

Aparna is all excited about her Tamil movie Sarvam Thaala Mayam. The movie is Rajiv Menon’s third directorial venture and marks his comeback to direction after 18 years. The movie stars G.V. Prakash in the lead role, with actors like Nedumudi Venu and Vineeth in supporting roles. It narrates the story of a wannabe percussionist and his struggles. She plays the character of Sara, a normal girl who comes from Kerala to Chennai for work. “Rajiv sir is a person with immense experience in cinema industry. He always observes the changes happening in movies and says he’s learning from the new movies. He examines how movies are taken in this era. He used to converse about new movies with us. There’s a lot to study from him. Usually, I’m not that comfortable in Tamil due to the constraints with the language. But like Jeethu sir’s movie, this one also was a family affair. His daughter Saraswathy did the costumes for the movie and as it was their own production, Latha Ma’am was involved, too. I really enjoyed doing Sara.” Her Tamil movie 8 Thottakal had got good critic response. 

She affirms that it was amazing to work in Malayalam and Tamil movies. However, personally she feels that Malayalam movies give her more freedom to express as she’s comfortable with the language. “I guess I’ll definitely do better in Tamil when I master the language.” She is currently shooting for Bilahari’s Allu Ramendran which stars Kunchacko Boban in the lead. The movie is said to be a family entertainer and is expected to be released in January.   

Aparna has some really huge hits to her credit. However, she is not an actress who’s bothered about the success and failure of her movies. “I’m not affected by the success or failure of a movie which I’m part of. But if someone comments about my performance, that will affect me and I’ll try to rectify it. What matters to me is the satisfaction I get while doing the character. Anu in Sunday Holiday was one character I loved doing. I wouldn’t have been disappointed if the movie didn’t do well as that character gave me great satisfaction. I want to give the best for the character I’m entrusted with.” 

Aparna is known to play many bold roles in her career. She doesn’t want to be typecast, though. “Most of them don’t even know what ‘bold’ means actually. The character being bold doesn’t mean she should slap a guy. Many of the scripts I get are like that. I love to do romantic roles. I haven’t got such characters in my career, except B.Tech, which had a romantic plot. Probably, I would like to do more sweet characters and bold ones, too.” 

A skilled dancer and singer, she wants to give more focus to classical dance in the coming years. Dancing has always been her passion. She is also known to be choosy regarding her characters. “Yes I’m selective. I have to manage my studies, too. Between Allu Ramendran and B.Tech’s releases, there has been a gap of six months. The movie’s team is really important to me. The character and the team matter the most,” she wraps up.”