KERALA: South Indian audiences can never get over the Mayuri impact adequately enough to relish the vamp image that Sudha Chandran sports in Hindi soaps. So it somehow felt good to meet her before she was done with her makeup which, I am pretty certain, would have been wrapped up only after she put on that elaborate bindi stretching all the way from between her brows to her hairline and kajal smeared on the entire eyelids. Though in her sari and sleeveless choli, Sudha looked more akin to Romola Sikand of ‘Kahin Kizi Roz’ than Mayuri of a distant yore, her occasional utterances in chaste Malayalam and the visible excitement in shooting in her home state gave a lost-and-found vibe to the rendezvous.

Of eyes and negative roles

She believes that her eyes are too small, a faith cemented by her mother who used to be sorry that she did not bequeath the characteristic large and dark Malayali eyes. As you peer into her eyes, illuminated by a will unfathomable, she says in answer, “No they are really small without makeup.” Maybe, that partly explains why she overdoes her eye makeup on screen, particularly for the Ekta Kapoor roles.

But, looks apart, she sounded pretty gung ho about her femme fatale image on the small screen. “At a time when the industry had made me think that cry baby roles were all I could do, Ekta offered me this negative character who was also classy and stylish. And I said, ‘Me? I am so down market and if you see me in my casual wears, I have an awfully simple dressing style.’ But she insisted that she can never go wrong in her choice of cast. And I found out that she was right. Suddenly, as Romola, I was a style icon and there was no looking back. I have enjoyed every bit of it.”

Sane pay packages, cheers!

She had once said that serial actors are over paid. Now that the windfall season seems to have receded, does she have any qualms? “No,” she affirms, “I think I was the first actor to have made such a remark. But it was true, there was money coming in like crazy. We used to be paid huge sums per serial per day. My father once asked me, ‘Are you really earning THIS money?’ Things had to stabilise at some point of time and now I think we are getting somewhere around the ‘right’ money. But people who want to stay here, people who want the industry to survive, people like me, would prefer it this way. The other thing was a bubble.”

Acting in films

“I did do a couple of films after ‘Mayuri’. But then I think, ‘Mayuri’ should not have been a launching pad for any actor, there was too much expectation among the audience after that. The films I did flopped back to back. And I decided to take a sabbatical break, I had my academics (she is a post graduate in Economics) and my dance to turn to. It was after a while that the break in serials happened.” The hitch for South Indian actors wanting to enter Hindi soaps industry is the insync dubbing, she says. The actors speak into a lapel mike without any prompting and it is recorded on the spot. “So language fluency becomes a must which is why it is difficult for non-Hindi speakers.”

After doing meaty roles in serials and basking in the glory of mass appeal, does she think the big screen has a frugal platter to offer to female actors? “When there are 100 films being made, you cannot ask for variety of roles. But, there are good female characters being made. And, today, I have the freedom to make a choice about doing a film. I have another career that comes with a handsome pay. So I don’t have to go and do a bad film and make a fool of myself. If good roles come my way, I would definitely love to act in films.”

‘Mayuri’, the milestone

“When I started dancing with an artificial leg, it created a lot of media attention and that is how the idea of the film came up. But, when my father and I were flown down to Hyderabad so that they got a first hand account of my life, they had no idea of casting me in the role. But once Ramoji Rao saw me, he wanted me to act the role, or rather live the role.” And she has a way of finding a reason to celebrate in everything. Why she celebrates her accident is because it gave her the career and the “very good friend I have in my husband”. Ravi Dang, is an assistant director and also manages the Sudha Chandran Dance Academy in Mumbai.

No issues playing mother

She made a forgettable debut in Malayalam as mother to Bala in the flopped Mohanlal-starrer ‘Alexander the Great’. But Sudha, being what she is, has no worries about getting typecast. “Well, at this age, what role do you expect me to do? Heroine?” She rolls her eyes quizzically. “It was a youngish mother anyway and what’s wrong in playing a mother? For me, once a role is done, it’s over. I don’t believe in the carried over image, not even when I do negative roles. The same Shahrukh Khan who did ‘Darr’ could also do a ‘DDLJ’, the audience are very intelligent.”

Acting with Mohanlal

She clasps her hands together and exclaims, “Oh! He is one of the industry’s best actors and it was a great experience. You know, when I was shooting for a Hindi serial in a village in Bihar, some local journos walked upto me and having heard that I was from Kerala, requested me to give the phone number of Mohanlal! I was so taken aback, and so proud that I belong to the same land as such a great actor.”

Reality shows in Malayalam

Sudha was seen in ‘Jhalak Dikhlaja’, a dance reality show on Sony TV, as a contestant. But she will be seen on the judging panel of a reality show for the first time- Amrita TV’s Super Dancer Junior 2. She, who had danced her way onto the pinnacle of will power with her artificial leg, was all praise for the little dancers she was judging. “Awesome, awesome! They are wonder kids really. When I was invited for this show, I thought, ‘what reality?’ All real talent I believed had found their way to the North. Living in a place like Bombay, I had this notion that reality means the North. But seeing these children, I am simply amazed at the abundance of talent here.”

So shall we get to see more of her down South? “I would love to act in Malayalam. It is my desire to do Malayalam films.” She visits Kerala every year, to offer prayers at the Koodalmanikkam temple at Irinjalakkuda, where she has her ancestral home.

But this time, she has another desire to fulfill, to meet Mata Amritanandamayi. “I need that comforting hand on my head, because my mother has passed away, and I miss her.”