21st century proves lucky for this lovely actress

One of the most anticipated movies of the year, Pranav Mohanlal-starrer Irupathiyonnam Noottandu had kicked off back-to-back discussions on social media ever since its announcement. The moment director Arun Gopy revealed the name of Pranav’s heroine was exciting and memorable for not just the followers of the film’s updates, but for the leading lady Zaya David too. It was the day that started her tryst with fame. Pairing up with a national award-winning actor and a director who struck gold with his debut movie Ramaleela was a luckiest start for an actress.

“It was a great blessing to make debut in such a big movie with a great team. Being one of the most awaited movies of this year, the expectations were high and we were anxious to know how people would receive it. The response has been good for the movie and my character,” says Zaya, whose character too dons the same name. The Bengaluru-based actress started modelling at the age of 16 and that paved her way to movies.  

Zaya’s character has presence throughout the movie and passes through two phases. “The main challenge was with language. My Malayalam is not fluent, so I had to put a lot of effort on dialogues. Also the second half of the movie depicted the emotional side of Zaya, which had lengthy dialogues and emotive scenes.”

After she was selected for the role, Arun asked her to watch many movies and read a few books. She and Pranav attended a week-long workshop before the shooting started. “The workshop was really useful. We had yoga, meditation and exercises on voice modulation, acting and breathing.”

Pranav is known to be a very shy, reserved person. “Yes, he is. Actually the workshop acted as an ice-breaking session for us. The workshop made us comfortable which helped our chemistry in the movie. We were shooting together for three months and most of my combination scenes were with him. One of the funniest things was he used to miss his cue in many of our scenes as he couldn't decipher my language,” she laughs, adding that everyone, including Pranav, was very supportive of her.

Expressing her gratitude towards Arun and the entire team, she says, “It’s a big movie and so was a huge responsibility on me. Arun sir gave me the freedom to explore my character and was a great mentor.”

Zaya has already watched the movies three times. “Thanks to my mother, who saw the casting call on social media. My family is my biggest support and critics. I wish to do good, strong roles and want to do movies in all languages. I’m preparing myself for that,” she signs off.