Aparna Gopinath would brush off her grandmother correcting her Malayalam while she was growing up in Chennai.
Gopinath remembers retorting to her grandmother, “Why do I need Malayalam? I am not going to work in Kerala.”
Today, Gopinath finds herself labouring over sheets of Malayalam dialogue.
“It has certainly not been easy,” said the five-films-old actress talking about Munnariyuppu, where she plays a journalist, Anjali Arakkal.
“Anjali is a freelance journalist who wants to make it big. She is confident, ambitious and strongly opinionated,” said Gopinath. “At times, she is over-ambitious. This role was not just about the outward appearance, but I had to get into her mind as well. I had to bring out the seriousness of my character as well as retain her inert calmness. [Director] Venu sir and Unni sir guided me on that.”
Diction
The biggest challenge was getting her Malayalam diction right.
“Although I do talk in Malayalam, the dialogues for this film had to be delivered with a Kottayam accent with an emphasis on the right words.”
A stage actress since her college days, Gopinath said: “I don’t ever remember finding any of my stage characters more challenging except for a Tamil play, Six Characters in Search of An Author.”
Having found her true calling in theatre and worked in several productions of Madras Players and Koothu Pattarai in Chennai, Gopinath never wanted to be in films.
Her first film, American Born Confused Desi, in Malayalam happened after director Martin Parakkat spotted her on Facebook and approached her.
“I was not at all keen,” she recalled, “but met him at his insistence for a narration. I accepted the role as it did not require me to wear a sari, nor sport long hair or run around trees.”
Big leap
After working with Dulquer Salman in ABCD, it was a leap for Gopinath when she was offered a role with Mammootty in Munnariyuppu.
“I did have my own fears, much as I am in awe of him, I wondered whether I will be able to match up to his acting? I share space with Mammootty sir in a large part of the film. It’s a huge responsibility. Every scene was tough and my heart was in my mouth every day.”
“Mammootty sir is amazing and helped me a lot. His sense of humour is remarkable.”
She had been warned about Venu’s angry temperament before the filming began, “however till date I have not seen his angry side. He is a fantastic person.”
