As a child, Lovelyn used to accompany her mother Viji Chandrasekhar for shoots. She used to take along not her toys, but a costume kit… and during the break, she’d stand beside her mother, in front of a mirror, change her clothes and apply make-up.
“I just liked doing it,” recalls Lovelyn, “Growing up on the sets and watching my amma, I’ve just always wanted to be an actor.” And, as if to reiterate, she chips in – with a dramatic pause – “my plan A, B and C were to get into the movies.”
She soon will. Currently pursuing a course in psychology in Dubai, Lovelyn is ready to take her baby steps in Kollywood, where she’ll soon be debuting as heroine in a project that will be officially announced soon.
She’s adjusting her hair for the photoshoot and her mother looks on proudly. “Kids these days seem to know what they want,” declares Viji.
She fondly remembers how she got into a film when she was still just in Class VIII. “I used to accompany my sister, Saritha, for shoots, and one day, KB sir (director K Balachander) noticed me carrying my roller skates. I used to love them and carried them around always,” she recalls.
That gave the director an idea – and he cast her in a character that skates in Thillu Mullu, a film that is remembered even today for Rajinikanth’s comic timing. “Skating is like swimming… once you learn, you cannot forget it,” she beams, reminiscing about those scenes.
She took a break from movies after that film but came back after a decade – to do films and TV serials. Today, she’s doing a handful of films, including Muthuramalingam and Seemanin Seemaatti, and a TV show titled Uravai Thedi , a series she’s fiercely proud of. Viji considers her role in the 2012 film Aarohanam, in which she plays a mother who suffers from bipolar disorder, as one of her best outings so far. “That was a role of lifetime,” she says, “For me, it was the ultimate. It happened thanks to the vision that director Lakshmy Ramakrishnan had… I believe in being a director’s actor.”
She’s telling her daughter to follow that piece of advice. “I didn’t have to look far for inspiration – my amma was always right there for me,” says Lovelyn. Will it be tough to come to terms with being called a ‘heroine’? “Not at all. Even while I accompanied mom for shoots, I was being called ‘kutty heroine’. Today, that is a reality.”
