For those who dream of the big screen, an audition is a much-awaited opportunity that is attended with prayers and after a lot of homework. However, for Sharanya, it was so unbelievable that she actually thought her friend was playing a prank on her. “It was in June (my birthday month) last year that one of my seniors from CUSAT, who is also working in the film industry, told me that there is an audition going on for an upcoming Malayalam movie. He knew the storyline and told me the character in the movie was very much like me and that I could pull off the role. I didn’t know anyone there and so was pretty cool about the first day of audition. Though skeptical, I attended the second screening as well. After the scriptwriter of the film Krishnamurthy narrated the story only did I believe I was really going to be a part of the upcoming movie Maradona, directed by Vishnunarayanan,” explains Sharanya who will star as Asha in Maradona.
Though a usual face at college culturals and a die-hard fan of cinema, Sharanya doesn’t have a movie background. Thus, acting in Maradona, was exciting as well as very new to her. She says it was after signing the movie that she was tense about what to and what not to do. “I am lucky I got a very good crew right in the beginning of my career. The director asked me to get used to the environment on the sets before my shoot commenced.This was an ice-breaking session and I got to know the crew.
This helped me a lot in remaining calm and I genuinely feel it will be reflected in my acting as well,” she says, adding that the main lead of the movie, Tovino Thomas, too was very encouraging. I even asked my directer that was i not supposed to undergo any grooming, but they wanted me in the same get up as I am in my real life. I think, as a newcomer, the most encouraging factor is that the makers select you for being apt for the role in every sense.”
Sharanya’s character is supposed to be Tovino’s love interest in the movie. The newbie adds that romancing the actor was the toughest part. Sharanya, who works in a corporate, feels that though it was her dream to get into movies, she was never desperate. She didn’t even consider taking up television serials or modeling to forge a path towards cinema.
Commenting on whether a newcomer like her will be able to manage the competition in the industry without self-marketing and dedicating her entire time only to movies, Sharanya says, “I have a family that has supported all my dreams from the very beginning. They were open to my choices, be it studies, my career and even movies. So it is my responsibility to get a permanent job and then work towards my passion simultaneously, giving equal importance to both. I don’t want to utilise all my time for acting alone. If people like me in Maradona and in future if a director feels I can do justice to a role in terms of acting then he/she will definitely cast me in the film.” She has good expectations from the industry and is of the opinion that there is no shortcut to success.
