She might be all of 13, but Agnes Esther is no newbie to films. With 20 films already in her kitty, the teen made her Telugu debut with Drishyam , a remake of the Malayalam film of the same name. Kerala-based Esther, who also acted in the Malayalam version of the film with Mohanlal and Meena, was thrilled to share screen space with Venkatesh in the remake.
“My father would watch a few Telugu films when I was younger and I happened to watch one of Venkatesh uncle’s films, Lakshmi, along with him. I remember thinking that he was very handsome and good looking. I didn’t think that I would be sharing screen space with him one day,” she smiles.
The class VIII student, who has so far acted in Malayalam films, says that it was great working in the Telugu industry as well. “When I played Anu in the Malayalam version I found it very difficult, because the character is complex. However, it was easier when I did the Telugu one because I had done the same role once before. Also everybody on the sets was very friendly,” she says, adding, “Both Mohanlal and Venkatesh uncle are very friendly. The latter would treat me like his daughter and help me with my scenes; even before I’d have a doubt, he would clear it for me. He didn’t mind taking repeated shots and put us completely at ease.Also Meena aunty would engage us in conversations and I spent a lot of time playing with her daughter Nainika.”
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Bridging the Telugu-Malayalam gap also came easily to her with all the help she had on sets, she says. “One of our associate directors happens to be a Malayali and he would write out my dialogues in Malayalam for me. Everybody else would help me with the pronunciation. In fact, our director Sripriya Ma’am would say that Malayalis are very intelligent and easily get a hang of things,” she explains.
Ask her how she manages to juggle her acting career with school and she says, “So far I haven’t had any trouble managing both. We get breaks between shoots and I use that time to go to school and get notes; my friends are also very helpful. During exams I take an off from shooting.” What really works she says is that her friends don’t treat her like an actress. “On occasion they might tease me about being an actress but it’s only for fun and I can always kick them for doing that,” she laughs.