You can call Mrudula Murali a relative newbie, but unlike many others waiting in the wings, she has been fortunate in getting to work with established actors right from the start of her career. Debuting through Red Chillies, she started off by sharing screen space with Mohanlal and then moved on to become the heroine to Fahadh Faasil and now Chemban Vinod. Mrudula was zeroed in to play the female lead in the film Shikhamani after the director saw her performance in Fahadh-starrer Ayal Njanalla.
She narrates, “I liked the story of Shikhamani and my character Devika is a very intense character. I am a city girl who has to go through a life-changing incident. She accidentally meets Chemban’s character — a gangman — and we solve the problems together.”
She mentions that though she is just five films’ old, she has been very lucky to have starred with veterans. She adds, “More than acting opposite very good actors, what is more important is the learning experience you glean from them. When you see them emote, you tend to unconsciously raise the bar for yourself,” she says.
Asked if she ever gets nervous acting opposite established guns, Mrudula quips, “Even when I worked with Mohanlal, what I felt was a sense of excitement, not fear. In hindsight, I think excitement overrides my fear.”
Mrudula has not committed to any other Malayalam film after Shikhamani, but has signed on for a Telugu film and she states that language would never be a barrier in her quest for playing good roles. She is more than willing to experiment with roles in any language provided the team is good.
Talking of life away from films, Mrudula says, “I also want to pursue my PhD, maybe next year.”
A trained dancer, she is also finding time to attend her dance classes. A regular at film functions, it is impossible to ignore Mrudula’s fashion diva look where she sports the latest designer trends. Turns out she is a closet fashion designer, “I love fabrics and clothes and I have a taste for good clothes. I may turn to fashion designing one day, though not immediately. I sometimes design my own clothes and on occasions have also designed for my friends too. Though fashion designing is a career option in the future, right now I prefer to concentrate on my film career!”
