Shabareesh Varma reveals he is colour-blind, says wife Ashwini Kale is ‘the colour in my life’

In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, Shabareesh Varma opens up about their unwavering relationship and the cinematic journey they have been traversing together for years. Candidly revealing that he is colour-blind, he adds with warmth that Ashwini brings to his life the hues he cannot otherwise see. As we point out that actor-actor, director-actor, and even producer-actor couples are quite common, but art director-actor couples are not, Shabareesh quips, “It’s not that we intended to create such a rare combination; it happened naturally.”

“We first met while working on Premam. The love that started there grew into a relationship, and now it has reached this stage. I often say that she is the colour in my life. I am colour-blind, so I always get confused with combinations of colours. I often confuse green with yellow and vice versa. People make fun of me for that. They point to something and ask me what colour it is. I get confused, wondering, ‘Is it green or yellow?’ If there were no arrows in traffic lights, I would have been stuck on the road perpetually. Although I could memorise the order of the colours changing, it would still be difficult. This affects my daily life a lot,” he shares.

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Recalling the subsequent struggles he faced during his student days, Shabareesh says, “When I was studying sound engineering, they would say, ‘Bring the purple cable.’ The cables were all colour-coded. So I would be like, ‘Which one is the purple cable?’ That was a personal problem for me. Career-wise, I’m not sure how much it would have affected me, but personally, it has. And Ashwini has helped me with this a lot. I haven’t sought help from anyone else in this regard. Nonetheless, this isn’t the only thing she has supported me with, but since it relates to my career, I felt it’s right to mention it here.”

What is the beauty of succeeding and growing together, considering that they got married while they had just started out in the film industry? Shabareesh Varma has a cute and insightful answer for that as well. Expressing his immense happiness, he shares, “It doesn’t happen always. Now, during the recording of this interview, both of us are at a successful stage. But life is a rollercoaster, right? It can go up or down; sometimes for both of us at the same time, and other times differently for each of us.”

Shabareesh Varma in his first streaming series, the Malayalam horror comedy Inspection Bungalow.

He adds, “So far, whatever has happened has turned out to be favourable for us, and that’s because of our personal efforts too. The effort I put into Premam is still paying off, and the same goes for Ashwini’s work in Aavesham. Today, she is recognised at a pan-Indian level, or at least across South India. Even though not everyone may know her name or is aware that she created the work they enjoy, the fact that her work is being widely appreciated is a big thing.”

Helmed by Saiju SS and penned by Suneesh Varanadu, Inspection Bungalow premieres on November 14 on ZEE5. The horror comedy show also features Aadhya, Senthil Krishna, Shaju Sreedhar and Jayan Cherthala in key roles.