Aishwarya Rajesh, who has had multiple releases this year — The Great Indian Kitchen, Run Baby Run, Soppana Sundari, Farhana, and Theera Kaadhal — sits down for a chat about her script choices, the downside of acting in women-centric films, and more.
When asked about how she manages to do multiple films, she says, "I am a workaholic, and I am happy that films keep me busy." Over the years, Aishwarya has proven her mettle as an actor and as someone who is capable of shouldering a film on her own. She tells us that catering to today’s audience is a herculean task as everything is global nowadays with the advent of OTT platforms like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. "We have to be creatively strong. Cinema is globally exposed; be it a Spanish film, an Arabic film, or a Korean film, we are consuming content from everywhere. Likewise, people will start watching Tamil films too," she says.
Even though she has had back-to-back releases this year, the actress confesses that she hasn’t signed any films in 2023. "I have chosen 4-5 scripts, but we haven't got a producer on board yet. On the other hand, the stories that producers bring don’t work for me, and this is a loop. Since I am more concerned about the production value of a film, I couldn’t really find a project where I am convinced by the story as well as the producer."
Aishwarya opines that promotions, publicity, and a wide release have become mandates for a film to reach a vast audience, and is even more important for women-centric films. "I want to place a project in the right way. We put in a lot of thought and effort in making films, but I feel somewhere the lack of production value might let a film down. I am disappointed with how some of my previous films didn’t turn out well because of the lack of promotion."
Known for her women-centric films, Aishwarya points out that she is not approached for roles in commercial films or star vehicles. She says, "Of late, I have been getting only women-centric scripts when compared to big star movies. I am clueless as to why directors don’t cast me in films with big movie stars. While I would like to play such roles, I am also content with where I am. I believe we can tell interesting stories from female perspectives. People ask me why I don’t act in films other than women-centric ones. It's not that I don't want to be part of hero-centric or big star films. But I am not offered such roles."
Aishwarya puts in a lot of effort to dub for a film. She believes dubbing is where she acts again for the same film. "Dubbing is reacting; it gives life to my character, and that’s why I put in a lot of effort. I remember dubbing for days together for Vada Chennai, and it took twenty days for me to finish dubbing for Farhana. It is a tedious task and that's probably the reason many people don't do dubbing," she signs off.