After accumulating the directorial insights from Avasarala Srinivas about his upcoming film Phalana Abbayi Phalana Ammayi, The Pioneer interacted with the lead actress, Malvika Nair, who spoke exclusively about experimenting with the lines on the shooting spot, her camaraderie with Naga Shaurya, and more.
Amartya Smaran
Actor-director Avasarala Srinivas’ Phalana Abbayi Phalana Ammayi aka PAPA is going to hit the theaters on March 17. The film stars Naga Shaurya, Malvika Nair and Avasarala Srinivas in important roles. Right off the hook, let us tell you that PAPA is not a regular film. Recently, in an exclusive interview with The Pioneer, Avasarala Srinivas remarked, “I attempted a docu-Indie style of filmmaking with PAPA!” This means that the actors were given the liberty to try out different things with respect to the dialogue on the sets!
Now, we sat down with Malvika Nair, the leading lady of PAPA, to find out how enticing it was for her as an actor to be a part of a different environment. If you watch the trailer, it has all the trademark themes of the previous Avasarala films, but it is evident that the filmmaker tried something really unique. Especially, when it comes to how he utilised his actors’ skills.
Was it easy for Malvika to experiment with the lines on the shooting spot? “We didn’t wing the lines,” confirmed the star. “Especially because I’m not a native Telugu speaker. It would’ve been difficult for me. Everything that we’ve said is something that’s written, but I think how we said it and certain words were changed after much discussion. It’s like a dream for an actor to perform like that – just go free and do the thing. Otherwise, they told us exactly what to do and what we needed, because it’s not like a stage. Acting just transcends languages. It does help that I am South Indian and I understand the other tongues and I do understand Telugu. It’s just that I can’t speak it as well as I speak English.”
The Yevade Subramanyam actor informed us that workshop sessions helped her understand the world of her character a lot better. “I think life prepared me for this role (haha) and his (Srinivas Avasarala) workshops. That was four years ago, though, and in between there was a lot of time. If I was supposed to perform and be Anupama like in 2019 or 2020, it would have been very different from what we did in 2022, which is like two years of my life that I got after Covid and things like that.”
Curious to find out more about how actors prepare for a Srinivas Avasarala film? Naga Shaurya and Malvika initially took part in a two-day workshop, and just before they started the shoot again in 2022, they went into the groove for another couple of days, just to warm up.
“His workshops are very specific,” said Malvika, as she went on to say, “He would give us random scenarios and lead us to a certain kind of emotion. For example, he would give Shaurya and me a certain conflict, build that up to a point of screaming and shouting at each other, and then he’d flip on to the scene to see what it was actually supposed to be. Then we were supposed to perform from that emotional space. That is something that I’ve never done before because workshops are usually just getting to know characters and understanding who they are. Because there’s nothing very different about Anupama that you can’t imagine. It’s not like she’s an alien!”
All great actors have this great moment where they feel like they’ve kind of reached the sweet spot with respect to their craft. We are talking about those “I made it as an actor sort of moments!” The Taxiwala actress said that happened several times. She further elaborated, “I think I learned that, what makes me a good actor is my ability to be honest and transparent. That has sort of just cemented my belief in that.”
It was in 2016 that Naga Shaurya and Malvika Nair acted for the first time in a film called Kalyana Vaibhogame. The audience is going to see the duo on the screen after six long years. Speaking of the rapport that she shares with Shaurya, she commented, “The understanding is that you can do whatever and I’ll have your back. Sometimes, it’s like a riff, especially expression-wise. I don’t know how he’s going to react, how he’s going to end the scene, or what he’s going to say . There were times when we didn’t practise or I didn’t hear what he was going to say; if I was supposed to be taken aback, I wasn’t. I don’t know what the rapport was, but it was very comfortable, open, and present. We knew we could trust each other and had each other’s back in the scene or outside of the scene, which really gives you some comfort.”
She further said, “There are several things that go wrong on set, but actors know what goes wrong for them because we’re very vulnerable at the onset. We are very sensitive and emotional, as we don’t have a guard up. So, little things can put us off, and when you have somebody else feeling the same thing, it’s much more comfortable.”
PAPA is high on emotions, for sure. At least, that’s what the trailer suggests. Now, some people usually think using glycerin for emotional scenes calls for a bad actor. Malvika thinks otherwise. “Glycerin only physiologically makes your eyes water, but the rest of the emotion is just as strenuous. Even if I make myself cry and perform the scene versus using glycerin and performing the scene, it doesn’t work till I’m at that point of crying. Sometimes, physiologically, if your eyes are dry and water doesn’t come out, some actors need glycerin, but you still have to feel that pain and hate yourself or do whatever the scene demands. It’s just a personal thing. Several times the acting doesn’t work, even though one uses a lot of glycerin. They won’t be able to get there emotionally.”
As we all know, every actor resorts to a particular technique to emote in the best possible way. There are actors who dig deep into their personal lives, and others play an extended version of themselves or just stick to the world of the character. What does the Orey Bujjiga actress do? She talks about why she refrains from taking input from her personal life: “There are several resources that I have as an actor. My personal life is the last one, and it gets exhausted very quickly. If we have to perform like we’re crying or screaming at each other and I think of a time when I was angry, the next time it doesn’t have that kind of impact, even in the second take. So, that is like my last resort if I’m not able to get there. And that is also very exhaustive. That is when you can’t let your character go and you feel because you worked yourself up so much.”
Adding more to it, she winded up saying, “I try to avoid thinking about my personal life because it’s not a sustainable resource. It’s what you do when you start off as an actor and you’re like, “Oh! This is how I’m supposed to feel, so let me connect and then come back.” Srini said something about how you have to have a little director and an actor in your head. The director has to get you to that place without using your personal experience and make you happy. There’s this internal director/actor thing. That’s how you don’t take your character back home.”
