‘I bring in some of my real-life traits to characters I play’

CHENNAI: Sanchana Natarajan is not your typical actor, who dances around the trees and fades into oblivion. Her roles of Mayilu in Jigarthanda, and Lakshmi in Sarpatta Parambarai are some proof of it. “I choose my roles carefully. More than the screen time, I gauge them based on the impact it would. Even in Dhanush’s Jagame Thanthiram, though my presence isn’t predominant, it helped the story in moving forward. These are the kind of roles that gave me satisfaction,” the actor tells DT Next.

Despite playing pivotal characters in Pa Ranjith and Karthik Subbaraj’s films, Sanchana says that these are characters that she didn’t rush at. “I don’t see myself as a go-to-actor. These are roles that came to me because I believe I fit into a category of actors, who can do something different from the usual. It could be a hit or a miss but so far, the journey has been good,” adds the actor.

Despite amassing a loyal fan base for her off-camera urban persona on social media, Sanchana has pulled off playing rustic roles with ease in Sarpatta Parambarai, Jagame Thanthiram or the recently-released Jigarthanda DoubleX. “That is the most attractive part. I have been attracted to rustic characters when watching a movie. Even as the audience, I would like a character that is flawed and not characters that are too sweet, and nice. I always love that rusticity in them. There are people who say that playing who you aren’t in real life is what acting is. But I strongly feel that I bring in some of my real-life traits to go about my roles,” she explains.

That is what attracted her to Mayilu’s character in Jigarthanda DoubleX. “It is because it was nothing to what I did in my previous films. Mayilu is a character that doesn’t stand out, which is much easier. But she has to blend into her environment and be a part of a particular clan. However, we had a workshop prior to the shoot, which really helped. Even the shoot was challenging as we had to shoot under specific light at a specific time. The team was tremendous in putting things together in difficult terrain,” Sanchana remarks.

The actor gets excited about her next film, titled Bottle Radha that co-stars Guru Somasundaram. “The movie is directed by Dinakar, an associate of Pa Ranjith. I shot it before Jigarthanda and the film will have to complete its festival rounds. I can’t wait for the release and had a fantastic time shooting for it. I could say that Bottle Radha is my most favourite work of mine till date. I also have another Tamil-Hindi bilingual in Bejoy Nambiar’s direction, which has Kalidas Jayaram as one of the leads. That film would have me in a different avatar. Probably, like the ones people see me on social media,” she tells us on a concluding note.