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Interview: Sai Pallavi
Posted on December 21, 2020
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brangan
December 22, 2020
The interview is up.
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Archana
December 23, 2020
I really enjoyed hearing about her background, experience as well as her approach to acting. I wish she didn’t have to comment on every male co-star. It would have been nice if the choice were left up to her. Again, while it is interesting to hear about the creative process with different directors, I would love to hear more about how she has honed her craft, her challenges, work she admires, her take on OTT, etc.
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brangan
December 23, 2020
Archana: I did not see this as being “asked about her male co-stars” just for the sake of it. I specifically asked her to say something she took away from each co-star, and each director — because this is what is really important to someone so early in their career.
If she had switched to a generic tack like “Dhanush is great” and “Suriya is such a humble guy,” I would have nixed this line of questioning at once and gone to something else. But she was refreshingly un-bullshitty about her collaborators — so eager and enthusiastic to talk about them, and so amazingly SPECIFIC about her experiences — that I felt like capturing that “kid in a candy store” vibe I kept getting.
You have to sense what vibe your interview is presenting to you at the moment and play with that.
If you notice the Simran interview, I didn’t ask her about all the stars. Because she is in a much more senior zone now. (And on that day, she also didn’t seem in the mood for longer replies.)
For me, Sai Pallavi’s was EASILY one of the most satisfying interviews this year. I felt I got an “up close and personal” look at what life must be like for someone at her stage of her career.
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Rohit Aradhya
December 23, 2020
This is such a lovely interview. The anecdote about Sekar Kammula, she being uncertain sometimes taking up odd roles in fear of losing the love she has got, blushing about Suriya – everything was so honest. Also liked the way you kind of pushed her on her process working in NGK. Great stuff.
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Srinivas R
December 23, 2020
Always great when the person you interview is so much into it and sharing her views so candidly. Enjoyed it thoroughly.
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ravenus1
December 23, 2020
Not perhaps lead actors, but you do have Doctor/Actor examples in the industry
Dr. Sriram Lagoo
Dr. Maya Alagh
Anyhoo, it was a very nice interview, love her unguarded attitude, I should check out some of her movies.
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Anu Warrier
December 23, 2020
Wonderful interview. I haven’t seen much of her work, but have liked what little I have seen. This interview made me want to see more of her on screen. Thanks, BR.
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Rohit Aradhya
December 23, 2020
Aishwarya Lekshmi is also a doctor no?
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Ravi K
December 24, 2020
Dr. Rajasekhar also
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MANK
December 25, 2020
it was a very fine interview, she is very excited talking about her work and that helps.
Regarding NGK, even after all her explanations, the performances is still confusing, i feel there was a big gap between Selva’s original conception and the final execution.
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Tina
December 27, 2020
So BR, why are male stars not asked what they’ve taken away from female stars???
This is an absurd rationalisation bordering on meesai-la mann ottala.
Let’s put it this way, we should also normalize male stars picking up a thing or 2 or more from their female counterparts.
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brangan
December 27, 2020
Tina: So I am not asking you to change your opinion of this interview. I just want to explain my POV.
If you look at my Arvind Swami chat (around the 19-minute mark below), I ask him about what he picked up from working with Sridevi.
Whether with Arvind or with Sai Pallavi here, the idea was not to do a “gender” question, but more along the lines of: “here is someone known as a good actor when you were an up-and-comer, what did you pick up”?
With most male stars, I cannot ask this question because there are so few good actresses. The women are almost always interchangeable. (The only person I wanted to ask this question with was Kamal, because he has acted with Srividya, Revathy, etc. But on that day , he was rushing to catch a flight, so I barely got the time to ask the other questions. I think this was during VISWAROOPAM 2.)
I guess it depends on how you look at it. For me, I look at it as a “cinema” question. A co-star is co-star, male or female, and sometimes you feel like asking about acting with someone. It’s just a nice way to learn about craft, about people…
But yes, if you frame this as a “gender” question, I guess you WILL find this sexist, and fairly so. But frankly, I cannot think of any actor today in whose interview I could name a bunch of female costars and ask “what did you learn from them”!
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(Original) venkatesh
December 29, 2020
Brilliant interview .
Great interviewee.
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Tina
December 30, 2020
Thanks for responding BR. It’s not an accusation as much as frustration. And all you are giving me are 1 or 2 proof points. Why only srividya? Why not a jyothika?
How many times has sai Pallavi been asked about dhanush vs. dhanush asked about Sai pallavi? So what does one need to ‘achieve’ to be name dropped as questions? It is still unfair.
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Enna koduka sir pera
January 4, 2021
This was a great interview! Sai Pallavi was amazing and refreshing on her thoughts on the directors and co-actors she has worked with! I enjoyed every single minute of it and my respect for her has grown. Also, this was not the usual ‘what do you think of this actor vs that actor’.
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archanaganesan2014
January 9, 2021
BR:
@Tina Absolutely!
Due to the overarching shift towards machismo and hero-centric movies, I agree that not as many female actors have had the chance to establish themselves as much in the past couple of decades.
Despite that there is a Simran, Jyothika, Manju Warrier, Trisha etc to name a few who have contributed. It seems unfair to deem them all interchangeable and dismiss the imbalance altogether.
Again BR this is not a criticism or super specific to the above interview and I agree that your intention was not to frame this as a gender question. And also you did ask about her not being in the poster shared for “Rowdy Baby”, so clearly it was not driven by bias.
But then it is important to acknowledge that in general there is an unconscious bias that most of us have
1) Women are asked way more often about other’s contribution to their success than men are.
2) Women are also judged way more harshly than men are – be it their looks, performance, accents, you name it.
3) Women are given way less credit for their technical knowledge and know-how.
I love how you have brought to the front a lot of technicians, script writers etc who aren’t usually well represented or credited.
While the onus is on the industry and society as a whole to even out the playing ground and to be more inclusive and fair.
I hope on our behalf as a critic, with every article or interview you continue to consider and examine if there could be any bias and lead the way.
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