Actor Parvathy Thiruvothu’s new year looks promising. She recently wrapped up the shoot of Tamil film Thangalaan, which will hit the screens on January 26. The Pa Ranjith directorial, also starring superstar Vikram, chronicles the tribal leader Thangalaan’s revolt against the British Empire. The film, Parvathy is certain, will change the landscape of Tamil cinema.
“The sheer expanse of the project is overwhelming. Pa Ranjith’s movies cut through all the hypocrisy there is in terms of turning a blind eye towards caste, religion and oppression, when it comes to filmmaking,” declares the actor, adding that her character empowered her as a person.
Thangalaan is Parvathy’s first collaboration with Vikram who, she admits, she wanted to work with for a long time. “Our school of acting and techniques are similar. Both of us tend to disappear into our roles, and to see that unfolding in front of my eyes was lovely,” she says.
With hits, including her debut film, Out of Syllabus, Poo, Bangalore Days, Uyare, and Take Off, which won her a National Award, Parvathy has been a big name across the Tamil and Malayalam film industries for nearly two decades now. She, however, became a pan-Indian star with the Bollywood film, Qarib Qarib Singlle, in which she starred opposite the late Irrfan. She sealed the title with her second Hindi film, Kadak Singh, and her first Telugu project, the crime series, Dhootha. Both thrillers were released on streaming platforms earlier this month. “It took me 17 years to get a Telugu project. I need writers to see me in a different light. That helps me get into their imagination. I enjoy thrillers, and with both Kadak Singh and Dhootha, I was able to explore the genre,” she says.
That Parvathy is not the conventional film heroine became evident early on in her career. Her second film, the Malayalam coming-of-age drama, Notebook, dealt with teenage pregnancy. She went on to play the aspirational woman on a journey of self-discovery in Charlie, an acid attack victim in Uyare, and a hostage in Take Off. Her portrayals of a nurse treating a patient of retrograde amnesia in Kadak Singh, and a feisty DCP in Dhootha only reinforce the versatility of her acting prowess. There is, however, a flip-side to success, she rues. “Success can be the biggest failure in the sense that filmmakers no longer feel the need for you to audition. They simply decide the kind of films you will do,” she adds, asserting that auditions are imperative irrespective of how popular an actor is.
But, Parvathy is more than just her films. Among the first people to call out the misogyny in films, be it Mammootty’s Kasaba or Sandeep Vanga Reddy’s Arjun Reddy, she has been branded a troublemaker by a section of the industry. Unfazed, she continues to hold her ground. “I want to ensure that I haven’t been complicit, knowingly or unknowingly, in creating a toxic environment. Which is why, I constantly keep reflecting on my choices,” says the actor, who is also the founding member of ‘Women in Collective Cinema’, which works for the welfare of women in Malayalam cinema. Voicing her opinion does impact the opportunities coming her way, but that is a compromise she doesn’t mind. “Every single day, I reassure myself that art has an impact, and that I have a role to play in it. If you empower yourself to make what you truly believe in, you will tilt the narrative,” she says. Now, that’s a woman with a cause.
