"I'm not a lesbian" - Padmapriya

She’s beautiful and she’s a natural before the camera. Even after being clearly recognised as an actor of substance in Malayalam cinema, Padmapriya hasn’t found her place in the top league. Kavita Shanmugham attempts to find out why.

At 21, she made her debut in Malayalam cinema as a 35-year-old mother of two, hankering for a third child orphaned in the Gujarat earthquake. The film Kazhcha went on to win many Kerala state and Filmfare awards and much acclaim for her meaningful debut. Three years later, she played a mad, beggar woman in the gritty family drama about a poor Tamilian migrant in Karutha Pakshikal. If this does not drive home her image as an actor of mettle, she makes her entry in Tamil cinema in Cheran’s ode to a father, Thavamai Thavamirundhu, in which she was appreciated for her remarkable character. Last year, even as she carried off her fiery role as an adivasi warrior in the period epic Pazhassi Raja with aplomb, along came her blink-and-she’s-gone role in the Tamil cowboy film, Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam. So, who is Padmapriya?

 The Nandita Das of southern cinema, many call her. Or is she simply arm candy material? “Yes, strangely I’m an established actor but I’m still not one. I’ve done amazing films and acted with different actors but I’m still not exploited much. Though, I’ve done 32 films, I’m still not there. I have it all and at the same time, I don’t have any of it.”

Maybe, this former risk consultant, who never set out to be an actor follows her heart over her head. Padmapriya reasons, “It is foolhardy to play a 35-year-old in my first role. My experimenting might have established my identity but it also took its toll on my career.” But, again, this is where it gets complicated; Padmapriya does not regret any of her roles. Largely because of her chameleon characters on celluloid, it took 10 Malayalam films before people recognised her in public, she admits.

The former Miss Andhra Pradesh cannot seem to fit into a single mould making it tough for filmmakers to slot her. “I’ve broken so many images, people don’t know where the hell to fit me. They are confused – what kind of role should we sign her up for? In one movie, I play an intensely homely woman who cries after pre-marital sex, in another I’m an export factory worker who seduces a guy in Pattiyal, then I play a woman tortured by her ex-husband in Satham Podathey and in Mirugam, I’m an Aids patient. I play a sweet dainty Muslim girl in Pokkisham and in Irumbukkotai, I barely have anything to do except look dolled up. Filmmakers say I am confused about what I want. But, I’m telling them now, in fact, beseeching my directors to cast me in any role, I will give you what you want.”

So, Padmapriya like many hugely talented actors before her (remember the great Smita Patil caved in to do Namak Halal) states: “I completely love masala films.” She goes on to defend her crossover statement too though, “I don’t have to dab loads of glycerine and black make-up and cry to be a performer. I can wear a bikini and still have substance but at the same time, neither do I have to show my belly button to look glam.”

She understands the layering of characters which is probably her biggest strength as an actor. It’s not tough to understand why director Hariharan using her fighting sequences in Pazhassi Raja as the standard so much so every one else on the set including Sarath Kumar was told to follow her moves.

A thinking actor, Padmapriya gets all wound up when people question her on why she looks sort of plain in her most recent Telugu comedy. “I’m tired of telling people the character is a simple girl. I’m confused here. Do I work on my character or on how I should look? If I play myself, why the hell am I an actor?” After all acclaimed director Adoor Gopalakrishnan did not baulk at casting her in the role of a sex worker in a film set in the pre-independent era, without testing her in that look. “So, why cannot the other directors?”

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to answer that. It is a bitter pill to swallow for this classical dancer to boot, whose films have bagged rave reviews, to admit she probably lacks ‘commercial viability.’ This is why this daughter of a brigadier from a multi-cultural background was hesitant to enter films in the first place. ”I was working in GE Capital in Bengaluru even while I was doing films since I was unsure about the industry”, she shares. And later she gave it up for her full time career as an actor.

Yet, Padmapriya consoles herself that there are no heroines today who can run a film on their own steam. “No female actor is commercially viable today. The last successful heroine probably was Kajal. Then why is my market potential questioned?” Adopting a Martina Navravtilova-ish stand she demands equal rights and pay for women actors and they shouldn’t be cast aside once married or over 40. “Why are actors like Sarika not used? Why female actors are not paid enough, why can’t we act until we are 60? And, why nobody talks about a male oriented film?” she questions.