Kayadu Lohar was ‘intimidated’ by Tovino Thomas on Pallichattambi: ‘This film will elevate my position as an actress’

‘Pallichattambi will elevate my position as an actress’

She read the script and quickly said yes. “I play a character named Rebecca, and it is extremely different from all the characters I have been doing,” she said. “I immediately wanted to do it.” The character, she explained, is rooted, sensitive and intelligent, and serves a significant purpose within the film’s family drama. “It is written so well that you will not think about anything else but the story. You will immediately be engaged. I believe this movie will elevate my position as an actress,” When asked about her character, she replied, “I appear in two different looks in the film. The director had complete clarity about how my character should appear.”

She was deliberate about one thing: she does not want the audience to come in looking for glamour. “There is no glamour in nothing,” she said plainly. “I just hope people forget glamour about them and look at the performance and the story. That is what really attracted me as well.”

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Kayadu Lohar had to learn her lines phonetically

Preparing for a Malayalam film presented its own challenges, given that she does not speak the language. She walked through her process with some detail. Before any shoot, she brings in a dialogue coach and an acting coach from that language, someone who travels with her before filming begins. Together, they go through the script, work on the accent and break down the emotional logic behind each line. “I speak Hindi, so I know how to pronounce words and what expression I want. But in a language I don’t know, I need to understand both.” She recalled how she had a dialect coach on the set who helped her learn the lines phonetically and emotionally, so that when she delivers them on set, she is not just reciting sounds but actually inhabiting the moment.

That preparation was tested at least once during the shoot. She had spent five days rehearsing two pages of dialogue when the team walked in the next day with entirely new lines. “I got really stressed that day,” she admitted, “but I figured out a way.”

Kayadu Lohar was ‘intimidated’ working with Tovino Thomas

Then there was the experience of acting alongside Tovino Thomas himself, which she described with unusual honesty. “He is the first actor with whom I got very intimidated,” she said. “Usually I am very confident on set. I always want to give my best. But with him, I got very intimidated.” The reason, she explained, was not about presence or star power. It was about how he works. “He is extremely intelligent with his acting. When he reads the script, he goes into a lot of detailing that would not even occur to most people.” She watched him work and found herself thinking harder about her own choices. “It made me push to think a lot more. Maybe 10 steps more ahead of what I was doing.” She describes the experience as both inspiring and, in the best way, unsettling. “I was very inspired by him. It made me want to be a better actor.”

About Pallichattambi

Pallichattambi is a period drama set in the late 1950s, directed by Dijo Jose Antony. It also features Vijayaraghavan, Johny Antony and others in key roles, with Prithviraj Sukumaran expected in a cameo. The film releases worldwide on April 10.