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Ever since she returned to cinema after an eight-year hiatus in 2015 with Rosshan Andrrews’ 36 Vayadhinile, Jyotika has been committed to avoiding the pitfalls of typecasting that marked the early phase of her career. To achieve this, she has embraced a variety of roles in the last few years, consistently pushing boundaries, even if it meant doing just one or two projects annually.
Jeo Baby’s Kaathal—The Core, in which she appeared alongside Malayalam superstar Mammootty, is a testament to her unconventional movie choices, as the film revolves around a homosexual man and a wife’s attempts to help him come out to society.
Meanwhile, she recently elaborated on her film choices and asserted that there are a lot of offers she says no to, while maintaining that even amidst all this, she rarely received genuinely diverse characters in Tamil industry.
“As far as women are concerned, it’s a different battle altogether, especially down South. As you turn 35-40, there are fewer options. If you’re doing well, then you are typecasted as well. In my case, I did a lot of good roles. I was a crusader who ran a government school in one film and a housewife in another. I did everything good there. But there was no room for grey. So I opted to do a Malayalam film instead, and that brought me here,” she said while taking part in Film Companion Actors’ Adda.
“My journey is all through Tamil, but a Malayalam film brought me here, sitting with such lovely actors on this platform. So, I guess you have to flow; you can’t be stagnant and swim in a pond. There’s an ocean out there. It’s time we all got in there, dived, and just discovered what’s happening.
“For women, you have to say no to a lot of things, especially in the realm of popular cinema because 90 per cent of the time, it doesn’t make sense what the girls are doing there. So, I have consciously taken this decision that when women come out after watching my films, they should have their heads held high. It’s a journey. It has its ups and downs, but your choice is what determines it,” she added.”
During the same conversation, Chithha actor-producer Siddharth reflected on the profound influence of Kamal Haasan and his films on him. He emphasised that no one else could parallel the impact the Tamil superstar had on the industry, consistently contributing to its evolution.
Mentioning that he frequently seeks advice from Kamal Haasan and his filmmaking mentor Mani Ratnam regarding how they overcame fear to make crucial decisions, Siddharth said, “If not for Kamal Haasan, there is a high chance that I would not have existed as an actor. We can’t even scratch the surface of what he was risking when he did what he was doing. The way I compliment Mammootty for doing Kaathal – The Core at his age now, I can compliment Kamal for doing all that he has done in the past 40 years.”
“That’s what I owe him… [The lessons he taught me on how] to live with even less fear going forward and choose my content and to keep reiterating to myself that I want to be an actor, not a star,” he added.
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