Actor Nithya Menen has come a good distance. A reluctant actor, she was honoured with Nationwide Award for her stellar efficiency within the Tamil movie Thiruchitrambalam (2022) this 12 months. In a candid dialog with SCREEN, Nithya shared her ideas on the award, and the way she by no means wished to behave in movies and initially discovered it difficult to deal with the eye.
On Thiruchitrambalam changing into such an enormous success, Nithya says, “It’s tough to place it in phrases. My co-awardee Manasi (Gujarati actress Manasi Parekh) really expressed the sensation; she cried. That’s how all of us really feel however she confirmed it. It’s a particular factor.”
Awards, Nithya confesses, had been by no means her major focus. “Awards aren’t one thing I’ve been after in any respect, ever. I by no means even considered it. I end a movie and transfer on to the subsequent movie. I don’t even think about if a movie of mine is successful or flop, what I get out of it. None of it was part of my thought course of. It was at all times work.”
The Nationwide Award, nevertheless, holds a deeper significance for Nithya. “For somebody with that mindset, the Nationwide Award means quite a bit. It healed plenty of issues inside me.” When probed additional, she stated, “You understand I’ve at all times finished issues in another way from the mainstream so it could get a bit exhausting typically. Each single battle seems like you might be swimming upstream. So getting this sort of validation makes you’re feeling okay (sighs), I’m doing the best factor.”
Nithya has constantly defied trade norms, choosing unconventional roles and tasks. Nevertheless, when requested if she feels the stress to do extra movies, or do extra mainstream motion pictures, she says, “I don’t really feel the stress to be in masala, mainstream movies, as a result of I don’t like them as a lot. I don’t watch them; I don’t like them and don’t really feel I’m lacking out on something.”
As an alternative, she craves significant storytelling, “I do really feel like I’m lacking out on one thing once I see good movies, or good filmmakers making movies. Then I really feel, ‘Why did they not ask me?’.”
Is that why we don’t see her in Bollywood even after successful hearts with movies like Mission Mangal with Vidya Balan and Akshay Kumar and internet sequence Breathe with Abhishek Bachchan? In response to her, her selective strategy has led to restricted appearances in Bollywood movies. She says, “It’s completely different how it’s positioned. In Hindi, I don’t know if they’re conscious of my vary or what I can do. There’s additionally typecasting.”
Nevertheless, with the rise of pan-Indian movies, Nithya is open to collaborating with gifted administrators from throughout the nation. “I need to work with good administrators who need to make good movies. There are administrators that I’m very keen on, movies that I’m very keen on. Vikramaditya Motwane is one among them, Lootera is one among my favorite movies. I feel it’s a masterpiece. I might like to work with individuals like that. I really feel there may be a lot potential. What I’ve expressed until now could be simply the tip of the iceberg; any person dig it up and provides me one thing to do this can put all of it on the market. I’m ready for that.”
Whereas Nithya’s performances have been cherished by the audiences and the critics equally, she by no means aspired to grow to be an actress. She confesses, “I by no means wished to be an actress. I had different desires. It was a little bit of a battle. If you find yourself not concerned about being (an actress), it isn’t a simple place for somebody who doesn’t need it. So all the eye made me go right into a shell. I didn’t need it. Not many individuals perceive this as a result of individuals assume one turns into an actor to get consideration. However a few of us do it as a result of it’s a expertise, it’s one thing we’ve been given and it’s our manner of expressing our feelings. It was an excessive amount of for me. It had nothing to do with showbiz or leisure, that was very far-off from my character. So I needed to go in opposition to my nature… Like I don’t like consideration, I don’t like lights, I don’t like noise, I want to be a wildlife filmmaker someday.”
