Sshivada has this to say about her new role in Chanakya Thanthram. She is at that turning point where the coy, girl-next-door image gives way to an alpha woman of the modern times. The actor has joined the Achayans team, with Unni Mukundan and director Kannan Thamarakulam, for the second time and it has been an exciting journey.
“The crew almost remained the same as in Achayans. From the salwar-sari avatars, I am moving into a different role; that of a detective. My character’s name is Irene. It is not that I am paired opposite Unni as in our previous outing. That’s all I can reveal for now,” says Sshivada.
Having finished the post-production works, Sshivada is awaiting the call from her next Tamil movie, an industry that throws up more challenging tasks for the actor, who loves trying different things out. Look at her filmography, the number of Kolly projects is on the rise year after year. Here’s why.
“More exciting roles are coming from Tamil. The male and female leads have equal importance in those movies. Malayalam hasn’t yet started giving me the challenges Tamil can offer. Now that I am back after the dubbing of my latest in Tamil, Ashwin Saravanan’s Iravaakaalam, the shooting for another project is about to commence,” she says.
Not just Tamil, she has invitations from Kannada and Telugu too. “So many opportunities are coming from Telugu and Kannada. The thing is, I am not comfortable with prompting. The moment prompting comes, I lose concentration. I want to know what I say before the camera and therefore, I learn dialogues. Tamil comes easily to me since I was born in Tamil Nadu. That’s not the case with other languages. When I get calls, I’d say the same reason for why I am not coming,” she is clear.
Sshivada has a newfound passion apart from cinema — her studies. She is pursuing her masters in Bharatanatyam from Tamil Nadu University. “Ever since my family returned from Tamil Nadu to settle in Kerala, I started learning classical dance. I was in Class V then. It took a backseat when I got into movies. I was under the tutelage of Sudha Peethambaran. Now, I learn Bharatanatyam under dancer veterans V.P. Dhananjayan and Shanta Dhananjayan famously called the Vodafone couple,” says Sshivada. The actor looks forward to a two-month break to prepare for the examination.
