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EXCLUSIVE: Nithya Menen opens up about her film choices, Kumari Srimathi and upcoming projects; says ‘I hate the whole done and dusted…’
Pinkvilla had an exclusive interview with Nithya Menen where the Mersal actress talked about her latest web series, upcoming projects, and the way she approaches films. Read on…
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Nithya Menen opens up about Kumari Srimathi, Masterpeace, and other projects
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Nithya Menen's latest web series, Kumari Srimathi is out now
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The actress will next be seen in a web series titled Masterpeace
Nithya Menen is undoubtedly one of the most versatile actresses in South India right now. The actress has acted in close to 50 films, and web series. Most recently, the actress was seen in the Telugu drama series Kumari Srimathi. Pinkvilla had an exclusive chat with the O Kadhal Kanmani actress, where she opened up about Kumari Srimathi, the way she approaches characters, and her upcoming projects.
Excerpts from the interview:
1. Kumari Srimathi deals with a lot of different social aspects as well… There is a subtle undertone to the entire storyline. And this social undertone is something that is quite prominent in most of your works… But specifically when it comes to Kumari Srimathi, was there anything in particular that you were afraid of, or thought you should give more importance to when you approached this character?
Nithya Menen: Not at all, I don’t overthink things like this. There was nothing to overthink. I thought it was a cute light story and I was excited to play someone who is very unconventional. You see a girl who is in a small town, who is in other ways around a lot of conventional things, but she is very out of the box, because she is doing things which is not the norm. And that’s a very freeing thing. Why would I approach it with so much intellectualization, right?
2. Every project that you take up, be it films, or web series, there has been a keen aspect that the characters portrayed are starkly different from ones that have been portrayed before. Is this a choice you make on purpose, or is it something that you bring forth to the characters?
Nithya Menen: It is both, but I choose definitely non-commercial stuff. Things that are not senseless and just are like made for the sake of making money, for example.Those are not the kind of genres that I do, and so I choose to do things which have a bit more of a story to say, that’s all.
3. Almost all characters that you have portrayed have a sense of realism, making it much more relatable, for people of all age groups. Be it the character of Srimathi in Kumari Srimathi, or the Penkutty character from 19(1)(a), while they are unorthodox from a “cinematic” point of view, they become largely relatable. But the characters are still very different from each other… So how exactly is it that you approach these completely different characters, in a way that you make them equally relatable to the audience?
Nithya Menen: What you are describing is my job. Portraying different characters with different things is my job, that is simply what I do. How do you do it? We all have different talents and skills. You may have a different set of skills. My skill set is very strongly in the emotionally intelligent space. I observe people, I am empathetic with people, emotionally I can understand what someone is going through, or something like that, and I can successfully communicate it with my face. That’s why I’m an actress. So that is a different skill set and a different kind of - I don’t see it as a talent, but I see it as certain intelligence that people have, There are different kinds of intelligence, this is one kind of intelligence which makes it possible for you to understand so many different kinds of characters or what they are going through. When it comes to age group, I really don’t think this kind of an emotional thing has any kind of age group at all. Anyone from a kid to a old person will connect to it because you are portraying something which is very close to the truth. Now when you make things which is just very close to what people call glamor, which is just a commercial film, there is little truth in that. There’s a lot of stakes, a sort of unrealism there, which may not appeal to everyone. The closer you go to the truth, the more people will connect to you, and age is not a criteria there.
4. You have dived into Tamil, Malayalam cinema. What drives you towards the cinema from different languages? Is there any language you wish to explore – Kannada and Hindi?
Nithya Menen: No. And that should be very obvious with what I have done until now, because there is no language bar in my head. It exists, unfortunately, outside, so people say “oh, why don’t you do more in Tamil” or “Oh why don’t you do more in Telugu” or “you don’t do anything in Kannada”. It’s not like that, I just read scripts, I can speak all languages with equal ease, so I read it. It makes no difference to me which language it is. I really like a script, I do it. So the language part is pretty much irrelevant in my world.
5. So I recently watched the trailer of Master peace, your upcoming web series. Honestly, I loved it. It feels like a genre that has not been explored in Malayalam entertainment before, kind of like a fusion between Karikku and Wes Anderson… Your character Riya and Sharaf U Dheen’s character Binoy seemed to have a fantastic chemistry even in the trailer… Can you tell us a bit more about the series, and what we as an audience can expect from it?
Nithya Menen: That’s the thing about that series that really… the minute I even heard - In fact, I didn’t hear the script when I said yes, I actually heard just the idea, and just that idea was enough for me to say let me do this, because it was such a cool, different, unique take on comedy. So, I find that really - I like bringing in new things, you know, into this place. I hate the whole done and dusted, same old, the minute one person does one thing, you know, people keep doing it again and again and again. So, I wanted to do something different because otherwise I’ll get bored. You know, I need to do different things in life, and I need to keep myself entertained also, so something like this was just a refreshing and unique idea for me. And I think it’s come out really well, and again, this would be another very fresh thing for people to see, a fresh visual. And again, similar to Kumari Srimathi it is such an ensemble cast, and you know a bunch of family and everything and a bunch of really good actors coming together.
6. Are there any updates about Aaram Thirukalpana?
Nithya Menen: I am not really at that place to give that update, but it is being- I think it’s being premiered at one of the film festivals, and the release will be after that.
Upcoming projects
Nithya Menen will next be seen in the Malayalam comedy drama web series Masterpeace. The show is helmed by Sreejith N, and features an ensemble cast including Sharaf U Dheen, Renji Panicker, Ashokan, Shanti Krishna, and Maala Parvathi. The show is scheduled to release on October 25th.
The actress will also feature in the Malayalam film Aaram Thirukalpana, helmed by Ajay Devaloka. The film is said to feature Shine Tom Chacko, Jagadish, Ketaki Narayan, Rahul Madhav, and more apart from the Thiruchithrambalam actress.
ALSO READ: Nithya Menen reacts to her alleged viral statement on being harassed by a Tamil hero; Calls it false
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