When you’ve successfully built a modelling career, walking for the biggest designers and working with international brands, what do you do when you get a call from Mani Ratnam’s production house? “I thought I was being pranked! I really didn’t think it was real,” says Dayana Erappa, one of the leading ladies in Mani Ratnam’s multi-starrer Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. But it really was Madras Talkies reaching out to her, asking if she knew Tamil and Telugu.
Dayana, who’s from Coorg, said she was fluent in Tamil and Kannada, and sent over her portfolio and forgot all about it. Two months later, she was called for an audition in Mumbai, for a project with Mani Ratnam. When it was time for her to meet the man himself, Dayana had no idea what to expect. Describing the meeting, her voice still has a starstruck quiver, “On the entire flight to Chennai, I was thinking about what I would do when I finally faced him. I grew up watching and falling in love with his movies, how could I be anything but excited?”
The meeting went well. A chat, a script reading with him, and a few weeks later, she got the call confirming her part. “I knew nothing about the role or the character, but I had zero worries. Women have been depicted beautifully in all of Mani sir’s movies, so I knew I was in good hands.” In fact, she says she had no idea she was one of the leading ladies in the movie until the film’s cast poster was released.
With no previous training or experience in acting, Dayana attended a few acting workshops to prepare herself. “When I found out I’d be acting opposite Simbu, I was quite nervous because I’d heard how talented he is. I’d also seen his movies and I wasn’t sure if I could match up to him.” And the first day on set she told Simbu exactly that. But he was supportive, telling her not to worry even if she needed 10 takes to get it right. “Sometimes it did take 10 takes,” she says laughing, but it was the encouragement she received on set that gave her the confidence to pull through. “From the actors to the ADs and stylists, it felt as though the entire crew was rooting for me.”
The transition from a successful model to an actor could not have been easy, but she says, “Even modelling is not something that you learn in a day or two; you work at it every day. So I was prepared to put in the hard work necessary to act from the get-go.” It also helped that she was surrounded by veteran actors. “I got to learn from just being around all that experience. Everyone was easy to talk to. No one treated me like a newcomer.”
Get her talking about her director and she switches to fangirl mode, “Mani sir is a patient craftsman and definitely a man with a vision. He works with you in a way that puts you at ease; so he gets the best performance out of his actors. His movies like Kannathil Muthamittaal and Thalapathi are my favourites. Now I see where the magic comes from.”
Ask her about Chaaya, the character she’s playing, and she won’t say anything more than that she’s a fun and adventurous girl, quite like herself. With a dream début in her hands, Dayana says she will continue modelling while she works on her acting skills, in case an interesting script comes knocking.
