Priyadarshan heaps praise on Malayalam actor Urvashi’s ability to handle comedy: ‘I wouldn’t have made Appatha without her’

Famed for his knack for crafting and capturing humour on screen, Priyadarshan has returned with a delightful comedy-drama titled Appatha, featuring the incredibly talented Urvashi in the lead role. The film revolves around an elderly woman who operates a pickle-manufacturing business in a village. Plagued by an intense fear of dogs, Appatha finds herself in a dilemma when her son requests her to look after his dog for a few days. However, in a surprising twist of events, that fear transforms into affection, and the film portrays the unfolding of that particular situation.

Asserting that if it were not for Urvashi, he wouldn’t have made the movie, Priyadarshan heaped praise on the actor, as her contribution enabled the team to execute the comedy scenes with so much ease. “I would describe Appatha as a live-action cartoon. It was because we had an actor like Urvashi who is as fluent in Tamil as she is in Malayalam, it was easy for us to pull off the comedy scenes. The scenes involving the dog too were helped by her ability to handle comedy. I wouldn’t have made this movie if not for Urvashi,” Priyadarshan said during a conversation with Film Companion.

Penned by Priyadarshan, Deepthi Govindarajan and John Britto, Appatha has been bankrolled jointly by Suresh Balaje, Jyoti Deshpande and George Pius.

When questioned about why, despite being an ardent fan of Urvashi and her outstanding performance in Michael Madana Kama Rajan (1990), in which she matched the performance of Kamal Haasan, he collaborated with the actor only once in their respective careers, in the movie Mithunam (1993), Priyadarshan explained: “I generally do not believe in writing a movie around the casting because then it becomes a project more than cinema. Even when I wanted to work with Urvashi back in the 90s, we didn’t get the chance to work it out because I too had gotten busy with my Hindi films for seven to eight years. But I’m so happy to be working with her again now for a film like Appatha.”

During another conversation with OTTPlay, the 66-year-old director reminisced that Mithunam, which now holds a cult status, faced commercial failure when it was released 30 years ago. “Today, it’s everyone’s favourite film. But when it was released, it was a big flop.”

“Even then, it felt like we (Urvashi and him) had done almost 100 films together. For me, working with her is like collaborating with Mohanlal. That’s the kind of camaraderie we share. I still call her by her nickname Podi,” the director added.

Expanding on the rationale behind his decision to make the movie in Tamil rather than Malayalam, despite both the director and the lead actor sharing Malayalam as their mother tongue, Priyadarshan stated: “I work more freely in Tamil. In Malayalam, there is the pressure of expectations. Then there are these demands for me to work with a certain set of actors. In Tamil, I get to make the kind of films I really want to.”

Apart from Urvashi, the film also stars Amit Bhargav, Kaveri Jha and Siddharth Babu in pivotal roles. Appatha is now streaming on JioCinema.