Sowmya Menon, who charmed us with her innocent and cute looks from the evergreen Malayalam album song 'Vannathi', is ready to grace the big screen in a movie directed by Sugeeth.
Much before the advent of social media, the pretty lass from Thrissur, came and won the hearts of many and left for Dubai. “I did the album when I was in class 12. I did a couple of ads as well but then as my family was settled there, we rarely visited Kerala. When I used to go for shopping, I noticed a few people staring at me in amazement. Sometimes, they even play the song behind me, may be that's just to check my reaction”, she laughingly told Onmanorama.
For the past 7 years, the M.Com graduate was working as an HR officer of a private company. All this while, she carried films and acting in her heart. “After the album became a huge hit, many offers came my way. But then I had to finish education”, she says.
But destiny sided with Sowmya as her debut film didn't took long. “It happened all of a sudden. Quite unexpectedly, when one of my school friends asked me if I would be interested to work in an advertisement, I didn't hesitate. That's where I met director Sugeeth and cinematographer Vivek. Sugeeth told me then that he was looking for new faces for his movie and that is how Kinavalli happened. Just a week before the movie went on floors, he gave me a call and asked me to reach Kerala within two days,” the young actress revealed.
There was an air of excitement as Sowmya talked about the crew of her upcoming film. “With this movie, director Sugeeth has risked himself. The subject of the movie is a bold attempt as the movie tagline 'based on a fake story' suggests, Sugeeth has entrusted six newcomers in pivotal roles in the movie. There is friendship, there is love and there is even horror. Even the posters are theme based. As Kinavalli is a bilingual movie, the responsibility is much bigger. Tamil has huge admirers for horror genre and in Malayalam people will accept if the movie is really good. Launching ourselves both in Malayalam and Tamil is an achievement and at the same time has its own pressure.”
A classical dancer since 8 years, Sowmya credits her dance teacher's friend for bringing her before the camera. When asked if she should have come earlier into the industry, Sowmya said "everything has it's own time". “Although my first venture before the camera was the album song 'Vannathi' in 2009, I was first chosen for the other album 'Chempakame' by director Udhayashankar. But since he needed a dusky girl for the song 'Sundari ye vaa', he had to look for another artist.
Years later, when Sowmya met director Sugeeth for the first time, he recalled about his bid to locate her for featuring her his hit movie Ordinary. "It is all about timing. Luck and hard work go hand-in-hand,” she remarked.
Talking about working then and now Sowmya feels it is easy to be a star in the present scenario. Although she admits that there is stiff competition, there are more number of opportunities to grab. “Earlier I was offered a small role in a Malayalam movie, but then I was not interested in doing glamourous roles and I dropped that project. Back then, it was a step-by-step process to get a chance in movies. But with social media platforms, you never know who will be the star the very next day. There used to be a time when we got to see actresses for a decade or so but now with each movie we get to see new actresses. Survival is hard now although openings are more," she says.
As we conclude our conversation, Sowmya reminded us that she would soon fly down to Kerala for the promotions of Kinavalli which will release on July 27. Although she has resigned her job, she will be awaiting the response to Kinavalli to chart out her next course.
