Lady luck and the new winds of change blowing across Mollywood have been favourable to Chennai-settled actress Kaniha. To her credit she has been careful in choosing strong roles that do not pigeonhole her into a particular slot. She will be playing another bold character in Shibu Gangadharan’s upcoming film Rudra Simhasanam starring Suresh Gopi in the lead.
Shedding light on her role, Kaniha says, “My character Mohini of Rudra Simhasanam is a role that I have not played before. There is a sensuousness to my character and I was skeptical if I could pull it off because the audience has this girl-next-door image of me, but the makers assured me that was exactly the image they wanted.”
Kaniha plays a woman with a dosham who finds it difficult to get married and when she finally does, it is to find a disconnect with her husband, prompting her to go back to her ex-flame whom she lusted for before her marriage.
An evolution in Kaniha’s criterion for selecting roles has naturally happened based on her experience.
She frankly states, “Early in my career it was the big banners that attracted me because at that point what you wanted was to get noticed to kickstart your career and a big banner would take care of that. I have now been around in the industry for a certain number of years and am at a point where I am selfish in my choice of roles. The audience knows my potential and what I can offer in terms of my craft so I am looking at only doing meaningful roles in a well-scripted film and I do not mind waiting for those kind of roles. I have a little one who needs my attention and while I listen to five scripts, I may choose to do only two.”
Fewer films but strong performance-oriented roles are important to her even if the film does not fare well at the box office.
Kaniha is however very appreciative of the women-oriented scripts and the general attitude of Mollywood.
She opines, “Mollywood has been my personal favourite because of the realistic themes. Yes, the recent films are giving importance to women characters, which is really good and I hope it is not a flash in the pan. At the end of the day, we are all actors barring male or female and the audience wants to watch a good film.”
Cinema is by large a male dominated industry and very often marriage sounds the death knell for the leading lady. Once she does choose to work after marriage it is mostly in the roles of a mother, sister or friend to the very heroes she once romanced. This stereotypical notion is however being challenged by a new breed of married actresses. Kaniha opines,
“When I started working after marriage people started spreading rumours but Mollywood has never been prejudiced, judgmental or biased. The industry and its people have been open to me as when I was unmarried. In fact, I have not done any films in Tamil after my marriage because I am not getting good offers. The roles offered are either unimportant or without substance which is why I stuck to Malayalam.”
Kaniha questions why marriage should be a barrier when her family is supportive of her choice. She adds, “Movies are something I cannot stay away from and I am passionate about films! As long as actresses have the looks, dedication, fire and passion to act, they should be offered good roles.”
Kaniha made a brief appearance in Mani Ratnam’s film Ok Kanmani because Mani Ratnam has been her mentor saying, “It’s not always about the character and money but about relationships too.” That has led to a flurry of enquiries from Tamil filmmakers and she mentions, “I have been noticed and am getting offers and I would love to do Tamil films because it is my mother tongue.” Meanwhile, her responsibilities as a mother keep her busy.
