He is used to darting around the tennis court and reacting to lightning fast serves and volleys, but Rynold Timothy was well out of his comfort zone when Binu P. Joseph roped him to act in his short film, She . The six-time State championship winner ventured before the camera for the first time for the 15 minute short film, which tells the story of a girl who is molested and the choices she is faced with afterwards.
Rynold, who plays John, the one person who accepts the protagonist and helps her move on with life, says that he is usually camera shy and took a while to warm up to acting. “Binu, the director is a senior of mine from college, and he was going through his Facebook friends list looking for people to cast and picked me. Since I was injured at the time and not able to play I decided to try acting. The first day I had some trouble and needed some retakes but by the next day I was more comfortable,” says the 26-year-old.
Did the discipline born from being an athlete help him in acting? “More than anything I think it is the features we do after tournaments that helped, because you get used to lots of people looking at you and you learn to speak in front of an audience. It was still daunting, but what little experience I had helped.”
He says that he did not have any apprehensions about making his debut in a project that deals with a topic that has set emotions aflame in the country. “Binu did a really good job explaining things to me, and even I felt that my character in the film is good and portrays a necessary change in societal attitude.” However, he adds that such change is more easily spoken about than implemented. “To be honest these are hard questions to answer. I don’t know what I would do if I was in the same situation as my character.”
The film has received over 4,000 views in the two weeks since its upload, and Rynold says the response for his performance has been positive. “For a first attempt, I am happy with the feedback I have received, and only close friends commented on my voice being different as I have not dubbed for the film.”
With a lot of youngsters venturing into filmmaking these days, opportunities abound. Will he act again given the chance? “I have not had other offers yet but if given an opportunity I definitely would. It was a very fun and challenging experience.”
