Kuttanad: When Sheela Sasi walked up to the shooting locale to perform her maiden role as a movie actor, her hands were all burned. The road worker had taken a break from the hazardous work to act in T V Chandran’s Malayalam film, ‘Pengalila’.

The 52-year-old woman from Veliyanad had no ambition to act in movies. Toiling under the sun and above molten asphalt, she had long forgotten her acting stint in the school plays.

She will don the role of the mother of the protagonist, played by Lal, in the movie based on A Ayyappan’s poem.

Sheela started work as an agricultural labourer as soon as she finished school. She later started work as a road worker to support her family of three children. As farm labour was too infrequent and unreliable, she also worked as a domestic help when there was no work to do.

She had acted in a few performances organised by the local Kudumbasree unit. However, she never thought she would be offered a role in a movie. The offer came from her nephew Pramod Veliyanad, a movie and stage actor. He had already sent her photo to production controller Shaji Pattikkara, who had been searching for an actor to be cast as Chembi, the mother of Lal. Pramod Veliyanad acts as her husband in the movie.

Sheela played Chembi in her youth and old age and successfully completed the dubbing work. The director was all praise for her work. He said she could get more offers.

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