Here comes the Ladoo girl

Sooriya Gaayathri Ashok has got ‘Vishu kaineettam’ many times but it was too special this year. Gaayathri was greeted by her mom on her returning home from a special temple visit on the day of Vishu in April with an important piece of info — a call from the director of Ladoo.  The news had not been out yet. In a mix of awe, anxiety and wonder, she called back immediately. She has become a heroine! “Happiness knew no bounds,” excitement simply gushes forth in her words. “I got super excited. Yeah, I was auditioned. There were fellow participants. I was tensed. I have even started thinking, I may or may not get a call. That was when it came.”

At the audition test for the leading lady for Arungeorge K. David’s movie Ladoo, she felt all the birth pangs a newbie actor can have. “It was a no-breakfast day,” she recollects the day that changed the course of her life. “I was over tensed to take food. I went through two rounds. In the second round, I was asked if I could dance, when all I did was some performances in college fest. At the end of the day, I spent a sleepless night.”

As the bold and devil-may-care Angelin, she is busy learning the before-the-camera acts on the sets of Ladoo in Thrissur, enjoying the new role every bit. Sometimes the shooting goes on to wee hours, a thing the visual communication grad and ex-graphic designer in Chennai is least bothered about.

“Our night shift hours in office were from 10 pm to 6 am. I got used to it and does not affect me at all,” says Gaayathri, who quit the job after a year to chase the new found passion — acting. Film shoot and acting are happening first in her life.

Until the commencement of shoot on May 8, she went through a preparatory phase on her transition from Gaayathri to Angelin. She specially mentions the name of scriptwriter Sagar Sathyan for helping her a good deal.

Acting has been passed on to Gaayathri from her mother, in fact. Mom Bindu is a former reality show contestant (Vanitha Rathnam) who currently enacts the villainous character Bhamini in the teleserial Rathri Mazha. From behind the screen, her police officer dad Ashokan and twin brother Gautham offer support.

Having forsaken her graphic designing career with an MNC, Gaayathri wishes to make a profession out of acting. A colourful new design, in fact.