Gautami who made a comeback with Papanasam alongside Kamal says that she is not dependent on others to make a call for her. “I take my own decisions be it choosing scripts, acting or anything for that matter and be responsible for them and stand up,” she says. The actor responded when queried if she takes Kamal’s concurrence before doing anything at the promo of her upcoming trilingual flick Namadhu in Tamil, Manamantha in Telugu and Vismayam in Malayalam.
She speaks about her daughter Subbalakshmi, future plans, how she can’t leave her first love —cinema, Kamal and co-star Mohanlal. “When I was approached for Papanasam to share screen space with Kamal, I asked the makers if they are casting me for the reason that I would fit the role or just because the pairing will be good. The director said that as an artiste I would be apt for the character. Only then did I sign on the dotted line,” revealed Gautami.
The effervescent lady says that she has given equal freedom to her daughter Subbalakshmi. “My daughter who is in Class X11 takes her own decisions, but I do guide her when required. As of now, her interest is in filmmaking”. She is also my biggest support, she says. Gautami asserts. “She always tells me ‘go back and do whatever you like, what you enjoy and what you are passionate,” she recalls.
Talking about Namadhu she says, “When noted director Chandra Sekar Yeleti approached me for the role of Gayathri in Namadhu, he just narrated the outline of my character and that he wanted me to do the film. I loved the way he narrated and wanted to work with him, but asked why me? He said that while writing the script for the last two years, he could fit only me in that role. And imagine, he had not even seen my comeback vehicle.
Namadhu with an urban backdrop is the story of four different people and at one point they converge. “Each person can relate to these characters and so this movie has universal appeal,”she says. On working with Mohanlal with whom she teams up for the third time she quips, “We have worked together only in two films. His Highness Abdullah and Iruvar. But the impact these two films created was so huge that people think we have done many films together. This film will also create a similar magic.” Will you continue to act, we ask, “Yes, why not? I came to the industry when I was 17. I felt no time has passed, although I was away from the scene for a while. I live with cinema and can’t leave it.”
