Shelly (left) with Deviyani Sharma in ‘Shaitan’
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Shaitan, a brand new Telugu net sequence, is just not a simple watch with the narrative constructed on profanity, sexual content material, violence, and massacre. The sequence is centred round a household caught in Telangana’s heated, muddled socio-political ambiance, ultimately main to murders and crimes. Heading the household of three is the mom, Savithri, performed by Malayalam actor Shelly.
Savithri may be very completely different from the demure roles Shelly has performed on Malayalam tv and in movies. It may be very completely different from her memorable position in Minnal Murali, the place she enacts the a part of the grief-stricken Usha, the love of the antagonist, Shibu, performed by Guru Somasundaram.
Difficult resolution
Shelly admits she was in two minds when the mission was provided to her. “I was okay with playing a mother to three children while essaying her younger and older versions. But then Mahi sir [director of the series Mahi V Raghav] said that there are a few intimate scenes. He asked me whether I would be comfortable doing it. It was not easy to take a decision. That’s when my inner voice said, ‘Why not?’ I loved the character and decided that I would work it out when the time came,” she says.
Actor Shelly
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Savithri, a single mom, is compelled right into a bodily relationship with a ruthless police officer in order that she may care for her kids, two sons and a daughter. But all hell breaks unfastened when the man eyes her daughter. Both her sons, Baali (Manish Rishi) and Gumti (Javed Shaikh), take the regulation into their arms. But Savithri helps them and even commits against the law for Baali’s sake.
Language barrier
Shelly says that talking in Telugu was the hardest half for her and never the ugly scenes. “During the audition, I messed up the dialogues and never thought I would be considered for the character. Nevertheless, they wanted me to do the role. It was not easy because besides learning the dialogues by heart, I had to understand what my co-actor was saying or else I would miss the timing. And if one of them improvised, I would fumble. Since I was concentrating on the language, it sort of restricted by body language,” she explains.
Shelly laughs when I inform her that it was tough to picturise her as the mom of three adults. “Even I was taken aback when I saw my ‘children’ on the set! I took up the role because I needed to have that out-of-the-box experience as an actor. Moreover, the series is in Telugu and not in Malayalam where the audience is used to seeing me in certain roles. I was new to the Telugu audience and wanted to break the stereotypes associated with my image,” Shelly asserts.
She says the crew went out of their method to make her comfy whereas filming the scene that portrayed bodily intimacy.
(From left) Manish Rishi, Deviyani Sharma and Shelly in ‘Shaitan’
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Shelly mentions that it was Minnal Murali that received her the position. “Ravi, our director’s assistant, had suggested my name after watching Minnal Murali. Actually he had wanted to cast me in Mahi sir’s previous work, Yathra [biopic on YSR Rajasekhara Reddy], after watching me in the [Tamil] film, Thanga Meengal. But that didn’t happen. So, when he saw me in Minnal Murali, he wanted me to do the role in Shaitan,” she says.
Her upcoming releases in Malayalam are Swakaryam Sambhava Bahulam, Narayaneente Moonnaanmakkal and Oru Bharatha Sarkar Ulpannam. In Tamil, she was final seen in Dhanush-starrer Naan Varuven.
Shaitan, dubbed in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali, is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.