Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
In every film, I sport a different look for each character. It's almost as if my features change to accommodate the characters.
Apart from being an actor, I'm an academician. I wanted to pursue something with which I could bring about a change in society.
I am super lucky to have a resume which has all kinds of filmmakers and films and hence experiences as a person and actress for me.
However vain our entire political class or organizations are, in the name of cynicism we cannot bend towards authoritarian populism.
No one can insist me to wear skimpy costumes and to act in steamy scenes just for the sake of pulling more audience to cinema halls.
In spite of its relatively nascent rise in popularity, tea joints across the country are romanticized, quite like beer pubs in the West.
I just cannot fathom the criteria and the eligibility for awards as there is an ocean of difference between the state and national awards.
Language is not a barrier, specially Hindi. It is the only language I read, write and speak in and so it is far easier than South Indian languages.
My entry into films was forced, and I always had an affinity towards academics. Having said that, it is the artiste within that urged me to say yes to acting.
Getting a Masters in Public Administration was nothing unusual for me. I have always been a person to hold on to my other interests along with my acting career.
It wasn't because of Striker's bad performance that I didn't sign any film in Bollywood. There wasn't much to do in Bollywood, and the offers weren't great too.
When you live with a character in your mind, after a while you start to behave like them, act like them and connect with them. That is how acting happens for me.
Tamil has given me an experience that's extremely rich from Vishnu's Pattiyal' to Chimbudevan's Irrumbakottai,' to even a small significant role in Ram's Thangameengal.'
Item numbers are a different ball game altogether. I feel no one in Mollywood has the guts or skill to film an item song, without making it look vulgar, as Amal Neerad can.
If I am offered a character that demands me to go bald, I would definitely give it a thought. I love my hair, but if the script is that brilliant I would take up such roles.
See, modern dance forms have a pull because the youngsters can relate to it, but it makes me happy to say that in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, people still relate to classical art forms.
The reason why I returned to dance is simply because I love dance. I had also promised myself that I wanted to make more sense of dance, study and understand it far more in detail.
I do want to get into the government and work for finance management divisions and policy management, but they are all long-term dreams and I don't know when I'll decide to go for it.
As an actor, I just made the most of the opportunities that came my way and I owe it to my directors for having given me characters with substance, as I have never gone around asking for a role.
I started dancing at a young age. When I became busy with films and studies, dance took a back seat. Also, it was constricting for someone like me, who is not religious, to do something which is so deified.
The starting point of social movements stems from deep pain and intolerance towards loss already incurred and hence any gain including just voicing the injustice empowers the movement and everybody else around them.
Malayalam actress Ann Augustine, director V K Prakash, writer Jayaprakah Kulur and I have planned to produce quality dramas and to take it to a wide range of audience. We are making some popular works into stage plays.
When you see the phase of 60s and 70s, the craze for Dev Anand and actors of that era, it still exists in south. The craze is huge but that's also for stars like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal, especially for male stars.
It has been a fairy tale for an outsider, bouncing from one film set to another, choosing my films as assertively as those films chose me. And through this journey I have not once faced the dreaded syndrome of the 'casting couch.'
The Weinstein story and the way it has shaken the roots of Hollywood has made apparent the fact that, across the world, there is a pressing need to recognize and correct the circumstances women subsist in, in order to move forward.
WCC is not an arbitrator, it's a collection of people who represent and protect the interest of women in cinema. We are an organisation that facilitates solutions for a just work space and don't see ourselves as arbitrators of justice.
I've never been linked to a co-star or director, never had drunken stupors or been disrespectful of a producer's position. I don't have parents intruding in filmmaking affairs and so on. I'm a professional and like to look at myself that way.
The Hegelian dynamic plays out daily on and off the film sets - women are not lesser beings, but because they are assumed to be, they are subjected to inferior conditions. And this inferiority projects itself through the feeling of weakness and subjugation.
Anger, pain and a tinge of joy are the recursive emotions I have been waking up to ever since I read reports on how Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed women in Hollywood for years. Some of these women are actors I have been longing to co-star with even if they reside in another part of the globe.
Three months after reaching the U.S., hurricane Sandy struck, and I had to spend four days in the university shelter. Though I have worked for projects on environment displacement in the past, it was the first time that I actually experienced one and understood how attached one can be to your regular shelter.
Shwetha Menon is my good friend and I have nothing against her. But, the Kerala State Award for the Best Actress has been given to her for Paleri Manickam' in which somebody else dubbed for her. I received only the second best actress award for my performance in Pazhassi Raja,' where I have dubbed in my own voice.