Karthika begins by correcting me when I ask her about playing the heroine of Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai . “I play one of the four heroes,” says the actress, who makes her comeback in Tamil after Bharathiraja’s Annakodi.
“It is not a conventional heroine role. There are no flowing saris or extensive make-up, nor are there any dreamy song-and-dance sequences. This is hard for me because I’m a born dancer and enjoy that bit about acting. I play Kuyili, a socially conscious rebel with Rajasthani roots, who needs to compete with the other three lead characters in her fight for justice.”
However, the film’s name proved a bit misleading in the beginning, she says. “The film’s director S.P. Jananathan is known for his socially conscious films such as Iyarkai and Peranmai . But with a name like Purampokku , I felt it would be a light-hearted rom-com with Arya. But only after the narration did I realise it was a serious, poignant story. It helped that the film was renamed Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai to bring in this seriousness.”
When asked why she was chosen for the role, she says it is because the director wanted someone bold with an Indian face. “It’s a male-centric film with one other woman in the cast. The director told me that he had visualised my face while writing the script. He’s the kind of director who creates an elaborate back story for each character even if it doesn’t end up in the film and he had one for my role too. My character Kuyili is named after the freedom fighter, who in her suicide attack killed several British soldiers.”
This self-proclaimed nerd has recently graduated from the London School of Economics in International Business. “The graduation means more to me than winning an Academy Award. I want to pursue MBA once I get some time,” she says, pointing out that her film Vaa Deal too is set to release soon along with projects in two other south Indian languages. “Studies are always a priority and I don’t want that to take a backseat. But there is so much learning in cinema too. I have picked up Tamil and Telugu after getting into cinema. So in a way, I have learnt as much from cinema as I have from academics,” she concludes, as she steps into the theatre to watch S/O Satyamurthy , the recent Allu Arjun-starrer.