Audiences have so far seen Priyamani in glam diva, action and homemaker roles. However, the National-Award winning actress is set to surprise her audiences in the role of a Naxalite in her forthcoming film, Virata Parvam.
The Venu-Udugala directorial will see the actress as Comrade Bharathakka.
Raving about the part and about having gotten it, Priyamani tells us that this role is a first for her. “When director Venu narrated the script, they went in for a look test right away. He had a few references of Naxalites, and he was adamant that I do the role as he felt I fit the bill perfectly. He also expressed to me that he wanted the role to be a very realistic one,” she adds.
Then talking about how the process for the photo shoot took close to two hours, she states that the director and his team carried real rifles to see how she looked with them in the photographs. “The hotel authorities were shocked when they saw the gun until we clarified that it was for the photoshoot,” adds Priyamani with a smile.
Terming director Venu as someone with a lot of clarity the Raktha Charitra star tells us how he had revealed to her during the shoot that he had worked as an assistant director for one of her earlier films, Pellaina Kottalo.
Turning into her character
Priyamani says that playing a Naxalite was a role she had wanted to do as there weren’t too many films with a Naxal backdrop in the recent past. Also, it was a role she never played earlier. Priyamani reveals that she had to put in a lot of work to transform herself for the part.
“The level of detailing for my character was fairly deep,” she says. “Virata Parvam is Venu’s vision a differently made film, which I hope the audiences appreciate. And as my character was not a glamorous role, Venu didn’t want me wearing any make-up; he also wanted me to leave my hair natural, have it tied into a bun, etc.,” she expresses.
Priyamani then talks about the amount of detailing that went into her role for a realistic portrayal from the Naxalites’ uniforms and what they carried including their guns and how they move in camps to how they are constantly on the go. In fact, she talks about how she had to learn many things for her part, including how to hold a rifle, which was another first for her.
A stunt master from Germany was brought in to train the actress on how to handle the gun.
“I have a few action sequences in the film, and while I have held pistols in my earlier films, it was for the first time I had to shoot with a real gun, even if they were without bullets,” explains Priyamani, further adding the challenge she faced with it.
“I hadn’t realised a rifle could be as heavy as that, and running around with that gun was one of my biggest challenges while doing the film.”
For Priyamani, the best part of the shooting was sharing screen with Sai Pallavi and Rana Daggubati. “I am sure the audience will have a great time watching all of us on screen together,” she signs off.
