Aditi Ravi shifts the past, present and future gears with equal pace to explore her actor side to the fullest. She has acted in the grown-up Pranav Mohanlal’s debut Aadhi. It’s impossible talking to her with suppressed curiosity or skip questions on her experience with the fellow actor. The memories from the day of auditioning to the last scene and shot she had with him make her sound too fan-girlish at certain points. Looks like, the wonderment from day one was, perhaps, growing bigger in magnitude.
“Only when somebody asks me about it do I think that I am acting with the celeb kid, Pranav Mohanlal,” wonderment gushes from Aditi. Each moment with him was more of a learning experience. She makes it specific narrating an incident. One day, she moved into the caravan to take a break, and a sight through its glass window changed her mind. "I saw Pranav remaining a keen spectator on the location, but it was not his part. I scarcely saw him in a caravan. I felt like ‘what was I doing?’ and immediately moved out. I can’t pick out a single moment when he behaved like Lalettan’s son. He patiently answers every question we ask, chit-chats with the crew during free time and rarely narrates some funny anecdote about his actor parent. Everyone respected him for being Lalettan’s boy. He, on the other hand, only wanted to be one among us.”
Aditi plays Anjana, a Kerala-bred, Bengaluru-based, young banking professional. “Anjana is a girl, educated in Kerala, who later shifted base to the Bengaluru city for a job. Unlikely for a Bengaluru girl, she is not the bold type. The movie gives so much space for every actor. I can’t disclose more.” How are she and Aadhi connected? “There’s no romance between us,” she purses her lips. That’s all about the insider tale for now. Though Pranav was appearing before the camera after a long time from being a child-artiste, Aditi says he had traces of an experienced actor within. “Mostly, we rehearse every scene. I felt like he was a person who acts with brain. If I make any mistake, it shows on my face. He knows how to manage it even if he let things slip. He’d adjust it in dialogues or performance. Only those observing from close quarters could understand there was a mistake,” she says.
Aditi defines Pranav as ‘simple and powerful’ with a chuckle. “Simple before us, and powerful for an outsider.” She recaps another act of simplicity. “If at all there is another actor who wowed me with simplicity, it’s Bhavana chechi. On the sets of Angry Babies, I was only doing a small part, with no facilities enjoyed by stars. She invited me to her caravan to take rest!” exclaims Aditi. That she is a two-film-old lead girl is a misconception. And Alamara was not her first movie either. “My first as a lead is for the campus movie, Naam, directed by Joshy Thomas Pallickal, slated for a December release. It has Mareena, Gayathri and I in female roles. Another is Chembaruthi Poo, where I am paired with Askar Ali,” says Aditi. One of these movies would have her brother Rakesh, a software professional, foray into music composing. Since joining the sets of Aadhi in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Aditi had little time for her family and friends. Now, most of her portions are complete and she is enjoying some good moments with them. “I am back to my place and finding time for functions and get-togethers,” says she. Once Aadhi gets over, Aditi would, on November 20, join the unnamed Kunchacko Boban movie to be directed by Sreejith Vijay.
