Santhy Balachandran calls herself lucky. From being a child prodigy who used to spend time with artworks and artists like T. Kaladharan and P. Gopinath, she has grown into a talented actress, who shot to fame with just one play. Her lucky streak continued as she got two back-to-back film offers — an independent movie and Tharangam, in which she was paired opposite Tovino Thomas. And the luckiest part — Tharangam is produced by Kollywood superstar Dhanush's Wunderbar Films.
“I was on a vacation during my Oxford stint as a PhD scholar when I came across this audition call for Harold Pinter's play The Lover directed by Sanal Aman. I got selected and meanwhile, got an offer to the play the lead in an independent movie directed by Prem Shankar. The shoot was to happen in Bengaluru,” recalls Santhy, who has been active in art and theatre scenario since school days. An artist, she has conducted six solo exhibitions in various cities and has been part of various group exhibitions.
When The Lover was staged in Kochi, Santhy got noticed and soon, she was approached by an impressed Tharangam director Arun Dominic, who was looking for a new face for his debut movie. But Santhy almost lost Tharangam as she was shooting in Bengaluru then. However, luck favoured her again as her video sent to the casting crew was approved. “Later, when I was back, I gave a live audition of some scenes in the movie and got chosen for the role,” she says.
So, what's her character like? “Tharangam is a black comedy with a lot of situational humour. I play a bold, independent guest lecturer who is quite a bossy type and is very serious, but ends up being funny,” she reveals.
For Santhy, the shoot was a great learning platform as the crew comprised both seniors — like Manoj K. Jayan and Vijayaraghavan and new-generation actors — like Tovino and Balu Varghese. “The 45-day shoot was tedious, but we had lots of fun. Most of us being youngsters, we got along really well. Also, I got to learn the various aspects of film making — mostly, the technical part,” says Santhy, who has already joined the team of A Pregnant King, an Indian English movie directed by T K Rajeev Kumar, as the dialogue writer.
After completing the dubbing of Tharangam, which she thoroughly enjoyed, Santhy is now awaiting the release of the movie in August, hoping to continue her lucky journey.
