BACK TO BUSINESS
Actress Amala Akkineni is all set to make a comeback in the Malayalam film industry after 26 years
Amala might be returning to the Malayalam film industry, with her film C/o Saira Banu, after 26 long years, but she still manages to hold your attention. In Kochi for the promotion of her Malayalam film, where she shares screen space with Manju Warrier. Amala says, “A whole generation has gone by and cinema has grown and evolved and become something amazing and I am honoured to be still connected with the medium.” She continues, “I am at an age where one doesn’t find that many meaningful roles and wherever I find one that seems interesting, I take it.” The director of C/o Saira Banu, Antony Sony, had visited Amala i n Hyderabad and narrated the script to her. “I have seen Manju’s films and when he said I would play an equally important role in the film where Manju plays the lead, I was quite excited. She is an extremely talented artiste and I have met her personally and found her to be a wonderful human being,” says Amala who plays lawyer Annie John Tharavadi in the film. Though the chance of returning to the Malayalam film industry after a long time excited Amala, there were also some reservations regarding the language barrier. She confesses, “It has been a while since I delivered dialogues in Malayalam, so I was hesitant. Then I thought that a little discomfort in learning the language should not make me miss the opportunity of doing this film.” So, Amala asked for a dialogue coach to help her with the language.
She recalls getting up at 5 am for Skype lessons with her coach Soumya, in the midst of a fully packed schedule comprising her role as the director of a film school as well as running an animal hospital along with managing her family. “Within a week, the sounds became a language and I was able to say the words with ease and then I decided to sign on the dotted line,” says Amala who used to go incognito to watch Malayalam movies.
I am at an age where one doesn’t find that many meaningful roles and wherever I find one that seems interesting, I take it