In the Capital recently as cosmetic giant Avon’s first-ever Indian brand ambassador, Asin talks about working in three different Indian film industries, her fascination with languages, being the first Indian actress to have completed a decade with a soft drink endorsement and more.
You have worked in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films and have done fairly well for yourself in all of them. How has your comparative experience been in all three film fraternities?
My experience in all three industries has been very good, actually. And this is first and foremost because the people whom I’ve worked with have been really good to me. On my part, I’m quite adaptable and flexible. I like Indian cinema as a whole and I like to know about the different kinds of cultures that feed into it. Wherever I shoot, I like to go and explore new places, talk to people and imbibe as many new things from them as possible. And I do think this attitude of mine has always helped me in my work and has enhanced my experience in the three industries regardless of which of them I’m working with at any given point of time.
You dub in your own voice for all your films. Does language never become a cause for hindrance in your work?
I thankfully pick up languages pretty fast, actually. I love learning new languages and I’m always fascinated by language in itself. It is an interest I have always had at a personal level and now it has ended up helping me in my professional space as well. I used to always try and speak to people around me in the respective language of the industry where I was working at any given point of time. This helped me get a conversational feel to whatever I would say when the camera would roll. A good performance is not just about the visual you see on screen, there is also voice modulation and tone that builds a character in totality. My interest in languages and my wanting that the work I do should be complete, has always made me want to give my 200 per cent to any role I take up.
In a majority of the Hindi films you have done so far, you seem to have picked roles that have you fade in the shadow of the star hero. What made you take them up?
A little while ago I’ve taken a conscious decision that I will not do any more roles just for the sake of being part of a big project or for visibility. I’m past that, I think, and am now at a stage where I can afford to be choosy. So now I will only be doing films where there are well written characters and better fleshed out roles. That’s also why you don’t see me as much nowadays. I want to have qualitative visibility now rather than quantitative visibility.
And you have carried your bubbly image to your endorsements as seen in commercials of Mirinda, with whom you have recently renewed your association, making you the only actress to have ever completed ten years with a particular soft drink endorsement.
Oh! It has really been such a pleasure working with them for such a long time. The Mirinda team are like family to me now, honestly. We all come up with these crazy ideas which are so much fun to execute. I get to do something different from my film roles and it is a lot of fun to get creative and then visually be part of what is created. I also feel very happy that a multinational like Pepsi has had enough faith in me to take their brand forward for such a long period of time. I feel very proud and blessed.
You are now also the first brand ambassador in India for US-based beauty care products giant Avon. How did this association come about?
What attracted me the most to signing with them were two things: first, that aside from being an iconic beauty care brand they also do a lot of charitable work for women all over the world which is something I’m really looking forward to. Second, I really like their philosophy which says: ‘You make it beautiful’ and speaks of a woman’s beauty as simply being enhanced by their products rather than being created by them. It’s all about the woman and isn’t superficial. It is about herself, her confidence and Avon enhancing what she already has.
