There was a time when no young actress dared to accept the role of a mother onscreen. Not anymore, if it is well-designed and significant. Young actresses like Keerthy Suresh, Shraddha Srinath changed the game and took up such roles. “Keerthy Suresh didn’t bat an eyelid and was truly excited about the story in ‘Penguin’ and agreed to play the mom role,” says director Eashwar Karthic who made the unique thriller ‘Penguin’ revolving around a pregnant woman who tracks down a serial killer. “She is very talented and pulled off the role with ease,” he adds.
Another talented actress who impressed viewers by playing a doting mother in ‘Jersey’ is again doing a mother role in her upcoming film ‘Saindhav’ opposite Venkatesh and already the trailer created a lot of hype ”Shraddha was reluctant to debut in Telugu with a mother role in ‘Jersey’ . In fact, it took a lot of time to convince her to play the mother of a ten-year-old and finally her performance turned out to be one of the highlights of the film,” says a source.
Even though many new age divas are game for mom roles, 30-plus actresses like Kajal Agarwal, Tamannaah, Anushka Shetty still prefer to play lover girl roles and dance around trees with heroes. “Heroines who are all looking gorgeous and fit will be only choosing romantic leads and shy away from mom roles for a reason. For instance, actress Sukanya who played an aged mother in ‘Indian 2’ (1996) began to lose her market and offers. Maybe, actresses would essay mother roles, if they are going to also play younger role in the same film. Otherwise, they would be apprehensive,” says director Hemanth Madhukar who differentiates between glam divas and character-driven actresses. “There are actresses like Suhasini, who do all kinds of roles and for them, playing a mother is just another character. I am glad that young generation heroines like Keerthy Suresh and Shraddha Srinath are doing young mom roles, treating it as another interesting role in their careers and it augurs well for the industry,’ he points out.
He claims that more heroines may not join the bandwagon since Telugu film audiences are reluctant to accept a lover girl in one film as a mother in another film. “More than filmmakers, it is viewers who can’t digest such transitions so filmmakers are reluctant to cast popular heroines. Even heroines are worried over being typecast and shun such roles,” he adds.
However, actress Priyamani dismisses stereotyping as a myth as she pulled off a mother role in ‘Family Man’ series. “Earlier, actresses perhaps were worried over being labeled as on screen mothers, so shied away from it. However, times have changed now and filmmakers are sketching interesting roles,” she says and adds, ”I played a mother in ‘Family Man’ since it was a well-etched role and enjoyed portraying it. It doesn’t mean that I would be doing more of such roles, rather I would pick the right ones to enhance my learning curve,” she concludes.
