She is somewhere in Vennala, Kochi. Nimisha Sajayan is only getting familiar with the place. But her few months here had been so lovely she decided to move to Kochi from Mumbai where she grew up. Difficult to believe she is a Mumbai Malayali, if all that you know of her comes from watching her songs from her first film as an actor —Thondimuthalum Dhriksaakshiyum. She plays the naadan Malayali, a commoner walking in her lose salwars and everyday expressions, wiping her face with her duppatta. She plays a woman several years older than her real age.
None of it seems to have worried Nimisha, a 21-year-old, who switched to acting before she finished her degree course in Mass Communication.
“I had been sending applications whenever I heard of casting calls. My interest must have begun in school when I was active in cultural activities, skits and all,” Nimisha says in an interview, two days before Thondimuthal is to release. Sreeja, her 26-year-old character, has been the biggest challenge.
What made it possible was the wonderful way Pothettan — director Dileesh Pothan — explained Sreeja. “I had no similarity with her. She is very mature, and I am least so,” she says in between many laughs. It is easy to picture her as the child everyone in the sets would pet, including Fahadh Faasil and Suraj Venjara-mmood. “They wouldn't be angry if I got something wrong. They would call me mole and correct me.
Another challenge had been perfecting her Malayalam. Growing up in Mumbai, she had an accent. In fact, Dileesh pointed that out for the first audition, at a time she was using 'ra' for 'zha' — a common syllable used in many Malayalam words like pazham and mazha. But she needn't have worried. Nimisha would soon find out these were some of the most paavam aalkaar. She got comfortable with the likes of Pothan, Alencier (actor) and Rajeev Ravi (cinematographer-director). “I am such a big foodie that Alenchachan (Alencier) would often tease me about it. He says the chettanmar who serve our rice are now admitted for hand injury, because they sprained it serving me all the time,” Nimisha laughs.
But all laughter seems to disappear when she becomes Sreeja, a 26-year-old working at a supermarket, dealing with some problems in life, and landing in Kasargode with it. Even before Sreeja has come on the big screen, Nimisha has gone off to do her second film, opposite Shane Nigam in Eeda, produced by Rajeev Ravi. “He called me and said, do you always want to do ammachi (older) roles, come here now." So she turns a college girl, a regular one, in Nimisha's words. In life, she is neither here nor there. She likes naadan, she likes her mullapoovu and sarees, but is modern too.
