Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, the talented actress who is performing Bharatanatyam in eight centres at this year’s Soorya Festival, plans to devote even more time for dance. “”I have always loved doing proper Bharatanatyam ‘kutcheries’,”” she told The Hindu at Kozhikode, where she had performed on the opening day of the Kozhikode edition of the Soorya Festival.
“”Over the next three months I would get a lot more time for my dance; I have been incredibly busy over the last few years with my acting, television shows, and so much travel,”” she says. “”I am dancing in the Chennai Music-Dance season next January and I am really looking forward to it; I would be practicing harder. When I see dancers like Priyadarshini Govind and Rama Vadiyanathan, I feel motivated.””
She adds she would continue to act. “”For that too is something I enjoy a great deal and I feel lucky that I have been able to do both dancing and acting,”” says Lakshmi, whose cameo in ‘Shikar’ has been well appreciated.
“”I am grateful to actor Mohanlal and director M. Padmakumar, who convinced me to do that particular role, of a Naxal activitst’s wife; initially I was supposed to play the wife of Mohanalal’s character (which was done by Sneha),”” says Lakshmi. “”But while I was shooting, or even dubbing, I had not realised that the role would make such an impact. Only when I saw the film that I knew that it was no insignificant role.””
Her splendid performance was another reminder for the Malayali film viewer about Lakshmi’s undoubted talent. Not many artistes could make such a strong impression in so few scenes.
After making her debut with ‘Arayannangalude Veedu’ in 2000, which also fetched her the State award for the best supporting actress, she impressed in films like `Thaniye’, for which she won the State award for the second best actress, ‘Paradeshi’ and ‘Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal’.
Her forthcoming Malayalam films are ‘Christian Brothers’ and `Sahasram’. “”’Christian Brothers’ is of course a big multi-starrer, a typical mainstream film, but I have an interesting role in `Sahasram’; I am playing a psychiatrist and it is one of the main characters in the film.””
On Saturday morning, Lakshmi had inaugurated the Mass Action for Plastic-waste free Kozhikode. “”I was impressed by that function at the beach; it is a good initiative taken by the District Collector P.B. Salim,”” she says. “”It was great to see such a huge crowd of school students coming forward to do something for our environment.””
