Including her upcoming film Pattas , she is three films old in Tamil. Yet Mehreen Pirzada is a virtual unknown for the movie audience here.
She could do little to help the situation. Her debut Tamil film, the Suseenthiran directorial Nenjil Thunivirundhal (2017), was all kinds of mess.
“Lots of things went wrong in that,” says Mehreen, over phone from Hyderabad. The film bombed at the box office, and, to add insult to injury, her portions in the film were chopped out after release to trim its run time.
Mehreen’s second outing was in a blink-and-you-miss type character in the Vijay Deverakonda film NOTA (2018), which too failed at the box office.
“Obviously, no one took the chance to give me a [second] break in Tamil. I’ve waited for the right chance, and I must thank Sathya Jyothi Films for bringing me back. They say patience is key... and now it’s like I’m back with a very big bang. I’m so glad that my comeback is opposite Dhanush sir,” she laughs.
Timing it right
For these reasons, the actor considers this re-launch to be her first film in Tamil.
Mehreen Pirzada
Mehreen plays Sadhana in Pattas . “But she is nothing like her name. She is a very bubbly, naughty girl, and my scenes with Dhanush are really funny. I’m sure people are going to enjoy and laugh about it a lot,” she says.
Her character, then, would not be too dissimilar to her role as Honey from the 2019 Telugu blockbuster F2 — Fun and Frustration .
“Honey is one of the best characters I have played. It was widely appreciated by everyone. I think the producers saw the film and thought that I would be able to pull this role off really well. They wanted someone with a good comedy timing,” she adds.
Comedy is what she considers as her biggest plus. Emoting during dramatic scenes is another.
“I’m a very emotional, sensitive person in real life. I don’t require glycerine. Once I connect to a character or scene, I’d automatically have teary eyes,” she says. The 25-year-old does not mind admitting to her awkwardness as that which contributes to this comedy timing. “It is not that I intend to be funny... I’m the clumsy funny types,” she laughs.
Mehreen Pirzada
Though she cannot speak the language yet, Mehreen says she has started to pick up Tamil better post Pattas.
“I speak fluently in Telugu now. I even dub for my movies. I’m sure as I start to do more and more Tamil films, I will pick up the language,” she remarks.
Working with Dhanush helped in this regard.
“I wanted to perfect my lines before he got to the set because I didn’t want to waste time. But he understood [when I got it wrong]. He is not that fluent in Hindi, and he told me it was like this when he worked in Bollywood. I would panic at times, but he’d calm me down. That way, the whole team really supported me,” she adds.
The prankster
Mehreen, though, cannot stop waxing lyrical about her co-star.
“He is a one take artiste. He is so good with his work. Between the words ‘Action’ and ‘Cut’, he does magic. He gives so many expressions in that timeline that it is overwhelming. You can learn so much when you work with such an actor,” she says.
Mehreen Pirzada is paired opposite Dhanush in ‘Pattas’
Despite the admiration, when it was time to prank, the actor managed to pull a fast one over her senior co-star.
“We were shooting the ‘Jigidi Killadi’ song in Pondicherry. There is a scene where he is driving an Audi convertible, and Jani Master (dance choreographer) felt that it would be better if I drove instead of him,” she begins.
The scene in question was being shot in July 2019. When Dhanush looked at her to ask if she knew driving, Mehreen pretended to not know.
“I know driving but I don’t drive because I’m not very comfortable with driving... let’s put it that way,” she laughs.
When Dhanush heard this response, he looked disapprovingly at the choreographer, only for his request to be turned down. For her part, Mehreen too rubbed it in when she asked him which one was the brake and the accelerator pedal.
“He was like, ‘Oh my God! What’s happening? You don’t know anything’. So, he sat right next to the car door just so he could jump out,” she laughs.
Mehreen Pirzada
“He kept telling me, ‘Mehreen, my life is very important. I have so much to do in life. I’m turning 36 in two days’. I was like, ‘Listen, my life is also very important. You have achieved so much. I have yet to, and I’m only 25’. It was funny,” she adds.
The actor’s Telugu film, Entha Manchivaadavuraa , too releases alongside Pattas on January 15. But she hopes to do more Tamil films.
“I love Chennai. The city really grows on you and how. I miss Chennai when I’m not there,” she concludes.
