Shruti Ramachandran and her versatile spirit

Shruti Ramachandran, a familiar face for Malayalis from movies like Pretham and Dear Comrade, won a state award for dubbing, just as she finished scripting in Tamil. The actress talks to TNIE about donning multiple roles

Actress Shruti Ramachandran was surprised when director Ranjith Sankar called her to dub for the movie ‘Kamala’. Though it was her first time, she really enjoyed the process due to the rapport she shared with the director. But, when she won the Kerala State Film Awards for the best female dubbing artist, it had double the impact. Shruti established herself as an actress through the movie ‘Pretham’ and won her first State Film Award through the director’s another movie.  

"My phone was suddenly flooded with calls and messages after nearly six months of calm. I had no idea what to make of it. I didn’t even know I was nominated, so when someone called to congratulate me, I just brushed it off thinking it was a prank and put my phone on silent. It was only when my grandmother called that I finally believed I had won," says Shruti. She believes her rapport with the team of 'Kamala' did the magic.

"Ranjith is extremely direct with his feedback. That made the whole process much easier," she adds. Shruti affirms that she loved dubbing for Ruhani Sharma's character. "Her portrayal of Kamala was excellent. To do justice to the film, I had got into the skin of Kamala’s character. I think the initial narration from the director really helped me do that."

The Tamil anthology movie 'Putham Pudhu Kaalai' released on Friday on Amazon Prime also has Shruti excited, as she rolls out yet another avatar as a scriptwriter in that. The segment 'Ilamai Idho Idho' directed by Sudha Kongara is scripted by Shruti and her husband Francis Thomas, who also scripted the movie 'Anweshanam'. "Francis and I jammed together quite a bit during Anweshanam’s development stages. That’s when we realised that we worked well together," she says. 

The star cast comprises Jayaram, Urvashi, Kalidas Jayaram and Kalyani Priyadarshan. “Sudha told him about the anthology and asked if he had threads he can work on. We’d just wrapped up 'Anweshanam', a thriller-drama, and we wanted to do something different, something lighter.  That is how ‘Ilamai Idho Idho’ happened. It is a fun movie that will bring a smile to your face,” says Shruti. She will soon join the set of ‘Kaanekkaane’ directed by Manu Ashokan. She is loving the different roles she’s taking up in movies.