All hopeful

Sana Althaf first became familiar to the audience as a television anchor. Soon she had the chance to be part of Lal Jose’s Vikramadithyan, playing Dulquer Salman’s sister Shruthi. However, she didn’t have to wait long to debut as a female lead. James Albert had no apprehensions in casting her as Salomi in his debut directorial venture Mariyam Mukku, opposite Fahadh Faasil. In fact, she had a fine entry into the Malayalam movies.

Later, Sana was seen in Rani Padmini as a paraglider, and in the lead role of Suhra in Basheerinte Premalekhanam in 2016. She has been missing in the industry for two years and is all set to make a comeback through one of the most anticipated movies of this year, Odiyan. 

The teaser of the movie has already got viral and the expectations have elevated. “I can’t reveal the details of that character now. I play the character of Manju chechi’s sister and Kailash plays my husband’s role. Though my screen time is less, the character is so important considering the script of the movie. It has prominence and it was difficult to portray the character. The character has transitions from a small girl to an aged woman. It was one of those characters with depth,” says Sana.

She says she underwent enough preparation to play the character. She and many artistes were trained by Atul, who flew in from Mumbai to conduct a workshop for them. 

“I was initially a little scared to act with the senior actors. They all are first-take actors and my concern was that their time would get wasted. I didn’t want them to get irritated because of me. Maybe, that’s why we had a one-week workshop before the shoot. It really helped me in understanding the character and removed my nervousness.”

She had most of her combination scenes with Mohanlal and Manju Warrier. She was even part of a song sequence with them, which she really enjoyed. As Sana was a Mohanlal fan, Odiyan presented her a great shooting experience. “My nervousness went away after shooting the first scene. Then what I had on my mind was how to make the character good and convincing. Lalettan and Manju chechi were so sweet and supportive, which made me so comfortable while shooting. I had combination scenes with Prakash Raj sir, too. I have dubbed for the character.”

Sana debuted in Tamil movies through Chennai 600028 II.  RK Nagar and Pancharaksharam are her upcoming movies in Tamil. “RK Nagar is a fun movie with a political background. Pancharaksharam is an experimental movie which deals with the five elements of earth. I represent the element of water in it.” 

Currently, she hasn’t committed any movies and affirms that her focus is on studies now. “Offers are there. We should get such characters that we should feel giving our time and effort, like the one I did in Odiyan. I’ll commit one when I get a substantial one,” she wraps up.