Actor Aishwarya Lekshmi might be born and brought up in Kerala, but it has never stopped her from exploring other film industries. Aishwarya’s Telugu film Ammu released today on Amazon Prime Video. Prior to this, the actor was seen in Mani Ratnam’s Tamil magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan 1 as Poonguzhali. Aishwarya says that after her Telugu debut with Godse earlier this year, she has become confident with the Telugu language.
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Aishwarya’s Ammu is a revenge thriller about a woman who is a victim of domestic abuse. Ammu is her second Telugu film and she says that a good script, in any language, makes her feel greedy as an artiste.
In an interview with indianexpress.com, Aishwarya Lekshmi said, “As an actor, may be first two years of my career, I was worried if I would be able to pull it off. But post Godse, I got the courage to do Telugu films. The language is not the thing here, the emotions are universal. The story which we are trying to tell is universal. Maybe there are some stories, which are rooted but the emotions are universal. I can express well, even if I am a Malayali or a Tamilian.”
Aishwarya, who has been part of several Malayalam films, added, “As far as I am concerned, I belong to Kerala but I don’t mind anything out of the ordinary. I don’t feel out of place when I work in Hyderabad or Chennai. I feel very much at home. I feel as comfortable as I feel when I am working in Malayalam. Maybe initially, I felt that I would have difficulty learning the language, now it is not there. I just get extremely greedy when I hear a good script in any language. I just don’t think language should be a barrier for any actor.”
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Directed by Charukesh Sekar, Ammu has some hard-hitting scenes depicting domestic abuse. The film has scenes where Ammu (Aishwarya Lekshmi) gets slapped by her husband (played by Naveen Chandra) multiple times. Aishwarya came on board after she read the script, which was written in an impactful manner.
“The words used in the script was painful enough for me to know what the woman was going through. Then I spoke to our director Charu, who is also our dialogue writer, and he was instrumental in helping me get the correct beat and tonality of the character. I didn’t want to make it look like acting or a performance because I wanted the audience to feel the pain she was going through. So, I wanted it to be as real as possible,” said the actor.
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For an artiste, to play such a character can be taxing. To live the life of Ammu on sets and then to feel her rage, did have some effect on Aishwarya Lekshmi.
“It was very challenging, especially the domestic abuse scenes. It was mentally very challenging especially when she actually breaks down for the first time. But I loved the revenge part. I was very happy that finally she is giving it back because I was holding so much of it inside. The drama of it was very exciting,” said Aishwarya.
Aishwarya Lekshmi reveals that Ammu was shot in the same order as the story, much to her relief.
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“I was very happy that we were shooting linearly. If at all we were shooting in reverse order, I am sure I would have been affected for the longest time. It left an impact while I was shooting or may be a week after that. I am usually an actor who leaves my characters on sets and goes back,” shared the actor. She further explained, “I am not a method actor. It usually never affects me. There was this one scene where I couldn’t stop crying after the performance. Like, I was crying in the scene and even after cut, I couldn’t stop. It was very very difficult for me,” she said.
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Next up for Aishwarya Lekshmi is Malayalam films Christopher and King of Kotha. She will also be seen in the second part of Ponniyin Selvan, which is expected to release in 2023.
