In Premam, when the audience was anxious about where the story was heading, Celine surprisingly springs up at George’s cake shop. George and the audience were left clueless at the sight of that beautiful girl. That just didn’t mark the entrance of a new character, it gifted a new actress to the movie industry — Madonna Sebastian.
For Madonna and audience, Celine will be a role to remember for a lifetime. As in the film sequence, she terms her entry into movies as an ‘unplanned’ one. The gorgeous actress then went on to do around nine films in all major South Indian languages.
Madonna was familiar to many as a singer. Even before acting in Premam, she had made her debut as a playback singer through You Too Brutus. She has been singing since childhood and is trained in Carnatic and Western music. The actress, who is busy shooting simultaneously in other languages, is making a comeback to Malayalam after almost two years. She will be seen playing the leading lady in the Asif Ali-starrer Iblis.
The film’s name has already made the audience inquisitive. “I play the role of Fida in the movie. The movie has a fantasy side, but is treated in a humorous way. It will really be a novel experience for the audience,” she says. The movie is directed by Rohith V.S., whose first film Adventures of Omanakuttan also dealt with an interesting storyline.
“Even though I work in different languages, working in Malayalam is easier and special as it’s our own turf. There is always scope for improvising when acting in Malayalam. I was waiting for a versatile role in Malayalam. I had seen Adventures of Omanakuttan and then came the call for playing Fida. It was the sort of role I was waiting for. The wait was worth it as I got a chance to do a different type of role. It was brilliant working with the team. The shoot and the production process went really smooth. It was a gratifying experience,” she talks about her return to Malayalam cinema. Her recent outing in Malayalam was with King Liar, which was also a hit at the box-office.
Madonna’s career has been on a high after Premam. She soon made her Tamil debut through Kadhalum Kadandhu Pogum opposite Vijay Sethupathi. The film was a great success and it established her name in South Indian films.
She had the chance to do two films again with Vijay Sethupathi, who is considered as one of the best actors in South India. “He is a fine actor. It’s always to pleasure to work with him. Acting opposite him makes my job easier too. He’s an easy character, on and off the sets,” she remarks.
She affirms that the singer in her is not getting much time to be active these days. She has a band called Everafter, which already has two hits Veruthe and Boogie to its name. Roby Abraham, Ashwin Aryan, Rex George, Joel Varghese and John Thomas are the other members of the band. The music video of Boogie was an instant hit on YouTube. “Both Veruthe and Boogie received tremendous feedback. These songs were made with limited resources, but turned out really well. Boogie is special to me. I’m not getting ample time to be involved in singing; maybe I should better my time management skills. Our band will be back with a song soon,” she adds.
So does she prefer acting or singing? “Don’t ask me that. Music has been with me since earlier days. So it has always been a part of my life. In fact, I can’t think of a life without music. Acting is something I enjoy and I need that too to be there,” she says.
She’s currently shooting for her Kannada movie Kotigobba 3 opposite Kiccha Sudeep. Favourite role? Dream role? “I love to do roles with substance. I’m open to any roles with depth,” she concludes.
