It is not as simple as it looks. Being funny is a tough job. Sridevika only had a vague idea in her head when she wanted to make small five-minute comedies with friends scattered across the UAE. But once she began with her beloved team of three women, they couldn’t stop. Random Wekaram, a web series, was born and they dug out all the creativity that had been tucked away into some deep corner of their minds. For they are all passionate about art. Sridevika, who brought the concept and directs the series, has been an actor herself.
“I used to act in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada, before I got married,” she says on a less-busy day from Dubai. Avan Chandiyude Makan, Parthan Kanda Paralokam, Chempada and Manjadikkuru all saw her play significant roles. But even then she had passionately thought about working behind the screens. “I read more about it when, after marriage, I had a lot of free time,” she says. The dream waited till her child grew up to the age of six. And then a few like-minded people happened to get together for coffee. They all wanted to do was something creative.
“They were people who had once been into theatre or in some other creative field. People who didn’t have an opportunity to do what they used to do, people like me.” So they started thinking about beginning a group together. That became The Green Room, a Facebook community. It is Sridevika’s childhood friend from Palakkad, Lekshmi alias Ammu, who told her to “not sit like this and to do something, because we now have a group”. Four women – Sridevika, Ammu, Suvarna and Sreebala – got together to brainstorm ideas and just like that the first episode got shot. “There was no script, we just shot the scenario of a woman trying to be fit,” Sridevika says.
“Even after editing it, we didn’t know if we would continue doing it. It was just a trial for us and everybody around us to know what we are going to do.” Sreebala plays the reluctant woman trying out gym and zumba and yoga, and pulls it off adorably. More episodes followed – the familiar mother-in-law/daughter-in-law tussles, a gossiping woman – all meant for five minutes of fun and laughter. The team is now ready to release their eighth episode.
Once the team brainstorms (Suvarna has a lot of stories), Sridevika takes care of everything from the screenplay to the camera (her iPhone), direction, sound and music. “We release an episode every 15 days and all four of us are working full time on it. We get help from outside too. Lal, for instance, helps us with the lighting and graphic design. And even when I went to Kerala for a vacation, I shot an episode there,” Sridevika says of her seventh one that includes a dog and a pennukaanal (ceremony of visiting a girl’s house to talk marriage). “The subjects we take up are what people relate to. Some friend or cousin around you may do such stupid things. Not much of a message, but it is something that happens in your daily life that will make you laugh,” she says.
