We Knew Paradha Would Generate Mixed Reactions

When Anupama Parmeswaran agreed to do Paradha, the recent Praveen Kandregula directorial, there were two kinds of challenges she had signed up for.

- BH HARSH

When Anupama Parmeswaran agreed to do Paradha, the recent Praveen Kandregula directorial, there were two kinds of challenges she had signed up for. The first one was to act with a veil on her face for nearly half of the film. Anupama recalls, "I remember thinking, 'How do I act now? I have to show emotions on my face. What if they get bored of seeing me in paradha?' There are so many scenes where I am silent. To perform merely with body language and voice was a big challenge."

The second challenge was a trickier, more nuanced one. Anupama explains, "We are talking about a sensitive topic in Paradha—we are not questioning any belief system, but rather how it is conveyed to us. That's the soul of the film, and to convey this idea with the right balance was a big task."

Paradha is also about the journey of three women and their evolution into better human beings. "We had to make sure that people don't get bored with these three characters, and that it should not be surface-level in treatment. The script evolved a lot during the making," she adds.

Talking about one particularly challenging scene, the 'Maguve Maguve' song sequence, where her character Subbu is forced by village heads to undergo a grueling ritual, Anupama notes, "I remember walking towards that well for a long time. I am usually a switch-on-switch-off actor, but there, I couldn't take it psychologically. I still remember the smell of smoke and