Second Show, the 2012-Malayalam movie, had a bunch of newbies in the cast and crew. The movie also marked the debut of Dulquer Salmaan, Gauthami Nair, Sunny Wayne, and director Srinath Rajendran. Gauthami Nair, through her performance in Diamond Necklace, established herself as one of the talented young artistes in the Malayalam movie industry. Known to be selective about her characters, she has been away from the limelight after getting wedded to Srinath in 2017. However, she’s back with a bang! Gauthami will now don the role of a director, captaining the team of Vrittham, her debut movie as a director with Sunny Wayne in the lead.
The movie’s launch, which happened yesterday in Kochi, was like a reunion of the Second Show team. She’s all excited about her new role. “Vrittham deals with the life of an ordinary person. The movie comes under neo-noir crime drama genre. It deals with the stories we see around in our towns daily. It’s a small movie with a simple story. What we are trying to give is a different treatment in the presentation. Hopefully, everything works out well,” says Gauthami. Vrittham also stars Durga Krishna, Anoop Menon, Saiju Kurup etc. The movie is produced by Olivia Seira Raiju and is written by K.S. Aravind and Daniell Sayooj Nair.
Like Second Show, Gauthami’s movie has a bunch of newcomers, too. The movie boasts of an all-women crew, which is the highlight of this project. Neha Nair will be in charge of the music department, while debutant Sharanya will handle the cinematography, Mitta Antony will lead the makeup department and Ashwini, the art department. “It was not a planned move. We all are friends and it just happened. They are very much talented. There’s no agenda in having an all-women crew. We want to convey the message that everyone has a platform to do movies here. Yes, they can really do it! There are a lot of opportunities in movies; all we need is to explore it well. I believe many female directors will debut once our movie gets released.”
Gauthami affirms her entry into movie itself was accidental. She had never expected to become an actress and she attended Second Show’s audition as a trial. “The team behind Second Show was so passionate about movies. So, while conversing and interacting with them, I too got the feeling that I should direct a movie someday. My plan was to do a movie after understanding more about cinema and assisting directors. The discussion of Vrittham began three years back. We had the storyline and Sunny chettan was the one to play the lead. The same writers did Kurup, and almost one and a half years was spent on its scripting. So, after its completion, the project became live again and we got a producer, too. While we were discussing, everyone was like, why can’t you direct the movie? So I turned into a director, earlier than I had expected.”
She states that direction is never an easy job. It’s always challenging, but she loves to take it up. “A movie is the result of many persons’ efforts. We should never judge a movie by another person’s review. Go and watch the movie in theatres, and appreciate the effort of the people involved in it. I’ve always followed this, but after turning a director, I feel it is my responsibility.”
She believes inspiration is everywhere. She has always followed movies of directors like Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino etc., and is inclined to dark, thriller movies. She asserts that she hasn’t bid goodbye to acting and will get back to it if good roles come her way. “It’s not like I left acting after my marriage. I didn’t get characters that excited me. I love to get back in front of camera.” Srinath has been a pillar of support for her throughout. She also thanks the team of Second Show and Theevandi for their support. “I’m very happy that Dulquer was there to launch my movie. He’s our family. He had been there in all the special moments of Srinath and me. We couldn’t have thought of a launch without his presence,” she signs off.
