Ritu Varma
Pelli Choopulu
Women often get a raw deal in Telugu cinema, relegated to playing glamorous additions in mass entertainers. But now and then certain author-backed characters make the audience nod in appreciation. Debut director Tharun Bhascker’s Pelli Choopulu , a runaway hit in 2016, had one such character. Ritu Varma befit the part of Chitra, a young MBA graduate who wants to pursue higher studies in Australia. Her father isn’t really an authoritarian, but like any patriarch wants to see her married soon. We see her cross paths with Prashant (Vijay Deverakonda), a lazy chap who dreams of becoming a chef. They start a food truck, she calling the shots with her business acumen. The character had an instant connect with the audience. Chitra mirrored many self-assured, confident woman. “My mother is a founder-principal of a school in Hyderabad. I’ve grown up watching her and my aunts manage work and home so well. Director Tharun’s mom is a strong, independent woman.
They were reference points,” says Ritu Varma, who is now working in Gautham Menon’s Dhruva Natchathiram . Chitra in Pelli Choopulu is not a rebel. Instead, she gets her father to understand her point of view. After the film, Ritu has had women sharing their experiences with her. “One girl told me that her relationship with her dad was similar to what was shown on screen,” says Ritu. Chitra may not be radical a character, but someone who mirrors everyday challenges. There lies its triumph. Gautham Menon is producing Pelli Choopulu’s remake in Tamil, starring Tamannaah Bhatia.
Sangeetha Devi Dundoo
Shraddha Srinath
U-Turn
“My earliest memories of growing up are those of going to theatres and watching movies. What I mostly remember from the films I watched is that the women were pretty much always shown to be the weaker ones. Always the dependant ones. The ones who needed saving. It was always the heroines who were giving up their dreams and careers to get married or to have babies. Heroines were being stalked and teased by heroes but that was okay. Heroines who were shunned by the hero for not being ladylike but later being pursued by the same hero when she starts dressing like a girl, with long tresses and the works. I could see a pattern in the roles and characters most heroines were playing and it wasn't inspiring.
Many years later I found myself playing Rachana the protagonist, in U Turn , my debut. And I looked and behaved nothing like the heroines I grew up watching. Short, curly and messy hair. Little make up. Rachana was this bold girl who was riding her two- wheeler around wearing the least flattering helmet. She was called the tomboy of her workplace and took it as a compliment.
She was flirting with her office crush and asking him out for coffee. She was the one fighting the police and the society. Not dainty and, not shy to speak out. Just like many girls you find in real life these days. Real girls.
To prepare for the character, I took bits of strong female characters from films and real life and made them my own.
I also worked on her gait, her style of speaking, working on my Kannada (for which I attended workshops). But more than anything else, it was the idea of making the character believable that makes it stand out.
Bhumika K
Santhi Mani
Kaaka Muttai
The 78-year-old is a star in her Kodambakkam colony, thanks to her role in Kaakamuttai as the cool paati who feeds her grandkids dosais that aspire to be pizzas.
Young boys in their bikes beg for a selfie with her. They ask her why she has to tire herself travelling in the bus, when she can afford autos and cars because she is a celebrity now.
Says Santhi Mani, “I began my career as an extra earning ₹10 a day. Now, I earn ₹3,000. People treat me with respect. They call me to audition over the phone. I do not have to go all the way to the location begging for a role. Agents call me everyday. I left my home in Salem to become an actress. None in my family bothered to call me back.
But after Kaakamuttai , they read articles and came in search of me.”
Semmalar Annam
Ammani
Semmalar Annam never expected to find herself in the sets of Ammani . The role of a bitter wife in her 30s was the last thing the 25-year-old thought she could pull off. But, once she dressed up in her sari and sported the red bindi, this young spirited theatre artiste, did not take much time to slip into a role.
It was a refreshing break from the clichéd roles where the heroines were expected to look pretty and smile coyly, says Semmalar. “But, it turned out to be a realistic role. The fights between the women in the house were something everyone could relate to. When we were shooting the scenes, it hardly looked like a film set. It was more like home. Everyone in the sets was enjoying.”
Parshathy J. Nath
