Going bold and solo, coolly: Sheelu Abraham

No one knows the importance of luck as much as actors and some actors find their professional career caught in a happy string of chances. Sheelu Abraham, in a brief span, has had the enviable luck of acting with not one but two superstars in Malayalam. She has shared screen space with Mammootty and Mohanlal and Lady Luck is in no mood to let go off her hand considering that she has been penciled in to play Dulquer Salmaan’s elder sister in the Bejoy Nambiar directed bi-lingual Solo. The actress in understandably over the moon.

Sheelu has acted in films like Puthen Panam, Kanal and Puthiya Niyamam with the superstars and it was her role of the bold and daring police officer in Puthiya Niyamam that caught Bejoy Nambiar’s eye. She continues, “Bejoy is a Bollywood director and I could understand the completely different style of working when I was called for the role. Every artiste, irrespective of whether big or small, has to go through a test and only if Bejoy is convinced of them being apt for the role will they be roped in.” In Sheelu’s case too, she had to send across a video along with some dialogues to Bejoy who evaluated that and found her suitable for the role of Dulquer’s elder sister. Though Sheelu does not want to reveal much about her role she does mention that she plays a bold character in Solo.

Speaking of her experience shooting with Dulquer, she gushes, “I have been wanting to act with Dulquer. The best part is that I get more screen space than my other appearances and all my scenes are with Dulquer. He is such a humble person —very grounded with no starry airs. Since the Tamil shoot was also happening simultaneously, I found it difficult to get some Tamil dialogues right and it was Dulquer who helped me get over it.” Though Sheelu was quite tension-free acting with Dulquer, it was different with his father Mammootty.

She narrates, “I first acted opposite Mammootty in Manglish and I was so scared to even look, leave alone talk to him. His reputation of being arrogant preceded him and I was nervous acting opposite him. But I found that contrary to his reputation, he is very supportive and helpful to everyone, especially newcomers. I did not find him arrogant at all.”  Sheelu acted with Mohanlal in Kanal and she says of the actor, “I did not feel nervous around Mohanlal and he is a person who makes everyone comfortable on the sets. There is a lot of respect for him.” Sheelu has three projects in hand which she prefers to speak about when the time comes.