Navarasa has rekindled my love for acting: Prayaga Martin

Actress Prayaga Martin drops by our office to talk about Navarasa that is all set to premiere on Netflix in a few hours. She plays the lead alongside Suriya in Navarasa’s episode of Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru. “I received a call from Gautham Menon’s office and asked me to come to Chennai for an audition. I read about Navarasa before the audition and got a hang of it,” she begins. After being confirmed as the female lead for the episode, Prayaga didn’t look back. “From the day of getting the call till this moment, I haven’t asked Gautham Menon or to myself why I was chosen for this. It is a dream team to be a part of. Mani sir, Jayendra sir and then there is PC Sreeram apart from Suriya and Gautham Menon. I hardly had time to ask questions. I just grabbed the opportunity and told myself that I shouldn’t let them down for having me on board Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru,” she tells us. 

Prayaga candidly says that this is the best thing that has happened to her in the last six years. “I have been part of a few Malayalam films in the last decade. But I hardly had any space to explore myself. I felt like my creative liberty was restricted. It was Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru unit and GVM that broke the shackles and gave me the much-needed space I craved as an artiste. Everything was organic and happened then and there. In fact, I almost decided to quit films. With this project, my love for films is rekindled,” she opens up. 

Gautham Menon’s female protagonists leave an everlasting mark in Tamil cinema. “Reena, Maya, Aaradhana, Jessie, Leela, Hemanika and Nithya are all women of class and caliber. My character is called Nethra, and she cannot be compared to them. However, Nethra is unique in her own way and she will have her own identity and a special place among all the other female protagonists from GVM’s films,” she adds. 

On working with Suriya, Prayaga says that it was him who cracked their chemistry on the sets. “I am a talkative person, and he is calm and is a completely different person when the camera starts rolling. I believe in knowing my co-actor to some extent for the bonding to happen. When we weren’t shooting, he was quietly listening to music and when the cameras rolled, he cracked the chemistry. He is really good at it,” adds the actress.