In conversation with 'Yaavarum Nalam' heroine

In a short span of time Neetu Chandra has developed a niche for herself. Barely 4 films old, Neetu gave a break through performance in the film Hindi film 'Traffic Signal'. The actress who lived on the streets to prepare for her role for the same is ready to take up the challenge to work in the next BIG Pictures supernatural thriller,' Yaavarum Nalam' (13B in Hindi) which will hit the theatres on 6th of March. We talk her about her scary encounters and the terror of doing a bilingual film, shot back to back.

Yaavarum Nalam is a super natural thriller. How challenging it is to work in this genre?

It was very different and interesting at the same time. I have done realistic films, comedy, drama but this was one genre I had not explored. There is lot in this film technically and cinematographically which is different from other films too. Otherwise it's a regular family drama but with a twist.

How do you describe Priya, your character and how much do you associate with her?

Every Indian girl is taught to be a good cultured girl; someone who will take care of the entire family and look after the elderly and kids. That's how I am in the film, a simple housewife. There was nothing to learn as such and an easy character to understand.

As far as relating to the character is concerned, like every kid I too had heard ghost stories which scared me when I was a little girl.

How would you describe Vikram as a director?

Vikram is a fantastic director. He is a National Award winner, so there is some credibility attached to him for sure. Apart from that he is very involved in everything and he knows each department of film making very well. All this makes it very easy for the crew members as everyone knows what exactly to do.

This is the first time you have done a bilingual film. How challenging was it to shot a film back to back in two different languages?

It was very difficult to pick up the language but Vikram, Madhavan and rest of the actors really helped me pull this off. But to learn a completely different language in such a short span of time and getting it right with the scenes was a nightmare at times.

Being a super natural thriller there must be a lot of intense scenes that you had to perform, which would have taken several takes to get it right. Once you get the shot right, getting it right again in a different language is a tough ask, isn't it?

Well of course giving the same expressions again and again is not really possible. If you see both the versions you will realise there are differences. But the funny thing was that the Tamil mother's character was played by some other actress and the Hindi by Poonam Dhillon, so I had to do same scenes with two different people with same intensity and attachment which was really funny in a way.

As for long dialogues I just mugged them up and I did the Hindi too so I knew what expressions are required for a particular scene. That sort of made it easy for me.

R. Madhavan said that there are very few actors that can not mix up between the two accents. Do you think you pulled it off to not bring Tamil accent into Hindi and Hindi into Tamil?

As far as Hindi is concerned, being a North Indian I am pretty good at it. Tamil is still an Indian language which has borrowed a lot of its words from Sanskrit which I have learnt. So I believe I managed to get it right. Madhavan on other hand comes from south so it's his mother tongue thus it's easy for him. In fact he encouraged me to learn it saying that as Indians we should know as many Indian languages as possible and you are getting an opportunity to do so then why not utilise it to the fullest. Now I know a lot of Tamil words and even manage to speak a sentence or two in Tamil.

You have been lucky to have worked with veteran directors and leading actors in the industry early in your career. How was working with R. Madhavan, a super star down south?

Well it was great, he was very helpful. And for my other films that I have done so far with equally good actors and directors makes me believe that I am cut out to be a part of this industry and lucky enough to grow as an actor with such talented people.

Are you superstitious? Did you encounter any such things on the sets of Yaavarum Nalam?

Not really but by the end of it I think it sort of grew upon me. Occasionally, I keep calling people while I am watching TV to check if the same programme is playing there or not. It's creepy at times.

Were there any scenes in the movie which actually scared you while shooting?

Couple of them, actually. For instance there was one scene which was a long shot and I am supposed to be looking out for Madhavan. The shot was such that it was only me and no one else, there was pin drop silence. I could just hear 'cut' and after that no one said a word. I kept calling for Vikram and Madhavan but no one answered for a very long time. So they kind of scared a hell out of me by playing such pranks on me.

Lastly, any favorite super natural thriller movie that gives you goose bumps?

Lots of them. Lot of classic old films like 'Heaven can't wait', 'Uninvited' from 40's, 'The Haunting' and 'Changeling'. From Bollywood it has to be 'Raat', 'Bhoot' and 'Aks'.

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Yavarum Nalam