No' to being typecast: Leona Lishoy

When Aanandam fame young actor Roshan’s friends saw Leona Lishoy, his co-star, for the first time they were taken aback. They assumed she would be much older but in person she looked the same age as Roshan. Leona narrates with a twinkle in her eye, alluding to her role in her recent hit Annmariya Kalippilannu where she played the role of a mature mother to a six year old daughter. Since then, she has been approached with characters that were elderly and she refused to be stereotyped and declined them.

The pretty girl bided her time till a suitable role came her way and it did not take long for the film Vishwasapoorvam Mansoor to appear on her horizon. It was her acquaintance Anil K Nair who informed her of the role; although not the lead, her character had an important role, he added, while asking her to accept it. Leona did just that. “The director PT Kunju Muhammad narrated the character sketch of

So what is it that snared her interest?  “The other characters in the film have some very intense emotions to portray but Soumya is very normal. She is Manzoor’s (Roshan) childhood friend who is close to very few people and so is possessive of Manzoor. That poses some problems but Soumya is very genuine at heart and bold.” Vishwasapoorvam Mansoor stars veterans like Zarina Wahab and Asha Sharat along with youngsters Roshan and Prayaga Martin. Though Leona had no scenes with Zarina, she got some chances to be up close and personal with her.

“Most of the shoot was held in a huge tharavadu and we would all gather there to eat and talk. There were jokes floating around and Zarina maam used to recall her experiences of her work in Malayalam and Tamil with each of us listening in rapt attention! She is so charming and used to smile all the time. Asha treated all of us like her family so it was a very enjoyable experience.” This is also the first time that Leona is working with a senior director like Kunju Muhammed. She states, “I was a bit scared of the director at first and thought him serious and wondered if I could ask him any doubts. Most of my fears were unfounded as I realized he was very friendly and would explain a scene if I had some confusion.” Leona will soon be seen in the Aashiq Abu film Mayanadhi which has Tovino Thomas in the lead.