Culture & Living
South star Nithya Menen on making her web debut with Breathe Into the Shadows: “It was too meaty a role to pass up”
After impressing audiences with Mission Mangal, her Bollywood debut last year, the actor has stepped on to the digital bandwagon. She talks to us about her love for different languages, playing complex characters, and more
Last year, Nithya Menen acted in Bollywood film Mission Mangal, adding Hindi to the long list of languages she has now done films in. The actor—who has appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada movies—has added another first to her list, making her web series debut with Amazon Prime Video’s Breathe: Into the Shadows. Starring opposite Abhishek Bachchan, who is also part of a web show for the first time, Menen plays a mother whose six-year-old child gets kidnapped in the crime thriller.
The critically-acclaimed star is known for roles—she played a physically challenged woman in Mynaa, a Kannada film that won her a Filmfare for Best Actress, and she was part of the lead pair of OK Kanmani, Mani Ratnam's 2015 Tamil hit, along with Dulquer Salman. As she waits for the lockdown to end and things to go back to normal, Menen speaks to Vogue about playing a complex character, her love for languages, and her plans to become a full-fledged musician.
You made your web debut with Breathe: Into the Shadows. How different was it to shoot for a web series as compared to movies?
It wasn’t different at all. I think there is a lot of intrigue and mystery behind web series. But it doesn’t feel different from a film shoot. Content-wise, yes there is definitely an expansion and diversification.
Often, crime thrillers use women as plot devices or bystanders. But your character seems to be an equal participant in the proceedings. Is that something that attracted you towards the role?
Absolutely, I would not have done it if I was just a bystander. I've been offered a lot more on OTT platforms—some of them are very successful shows. But it has been important to me that my character is not somebody who is just a buffer. It’s important that the script offers something for the performer in me. That's why when I heard this script, I thought that it's really unique and not something that comes by every day. It was a no-brainer, and too meaty a role to pass up.
Your character, Abha, doesn't fall into the stereotypical bracket of an on-screen mother. Was it a challenge to play such a nuanced, grey character?
It was an absolute pleasure to be given a role that has so many complexities and layers. These roles come very rarely. Also, since there is a time limit in films, you don’t get this much stay for your character’s emotional graph. It’s because the character was what it was, that I decided to be a part of the show.
While you've recently done a few Hindi projects, even your work in the South has been quite diverse. How much of your career has been a planned process?
Until now, there has been zero planning. I have just gone with the flow. I was really young when I started. I would do something if it made sense to me in my heart. Also, I wasn’t desperate to be a part of films, so I was choosy about what I did and that worked in my favour. But today, I am slightly more aware of what I want to do. It’s important to me that I fulfil my potential. That’s paramount to me and I'll make sure it goes in that direction. The kind of content I am doing now is conducive to that realisation.
Language doesn’t seem to be a barrier for you. You have done films in five of them.
Yes, I’m very fond of learning different languages. I would love to learn Bengali and Marathi now. The sound of new languages is so beautiful to my ears. When I hear it, I really want to learn it and speak it fluently.
You have recorded two songs during the lockdown. What’s the plan ahead with them? Do we see you as a full-fledged musician soon?
Absolutely. I really wanted to make music a part of my career. [The thought of] being a musician makes me very happy. I decided there is no time like now. I recorded two songs. One is an English track for which I have collaborated with a sarod player from London and the other song is in Tamil and Malayalam. We are just waiting to make sure we release it in the right way.
Apart from Iron Lady, the Jayalalitha biopic, what are the other projects you have in the pipeline?
The lockdown has pushed all the plans ahead. I have two Telugu films and two Tamil films, one of them with Dhanush. I’m also doing a web series in Telugu for Amazon Prime Video and of course, the next season of Breathe.
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