Actor Aditi Rao Hydari says she was drawn to Malayalam film "Sufiyum Sujatayum" for its fairytale-like romance where a mute woman falls in love with a Sufi priest in her neighbourhood.
Directed by Naranipuzha Shanavas, "Sufiyum Sujatayum", the musical romance movie also stars Jayasurya and Dev Mohan.
"There is a fable-like quality to the story of this film. We don't actually know if something is real or not real. The emotions of the characters are so flawed and yet so sweet and innocent that it almost felt unreal.
"When I first heard the script, it came across as a fairytale. It was an unreal world with real emotions," she told PTI in an interview.
The 33-year-old actor, who made her debut with a small part in 2006's Malayalam movie "Prajapathi", has featured in many productions across different languages, be it Hindi, Tamil, Telugu or Marathi.
She has been praised for her performances in movies such as Rakesh Omprakash Mehra's "Delhi 6", Sudhir Mishra's "Yeh Saali Zindagi", Mani Ratnam's "Kaatru Veliyidai" and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmaavat".
"Sufiyum Sajatayum" on Amazon Prime Video brings her back to Malayalam cinema.
"I don't look at cinema from the lens of language or boundary. In films, playing a character is all about making the audiences believe in your emotional journey. Emotions are universal and you don't need a language to express them.
"The director is the captain of the ship. The way a director works is how you have to work on a film. The difference is that I get to work with different directors and get to know their working styles," Aditi said.
The actor said she loved the story and her role as Sujata, which was a challenging character to portray.
"The biggest factor in my decision making was that I was going to play a girl who does not speak. It gave me a different experience. Practically, there was no worry about dialogues and emotionally, there was no need for me to express with the tool of language," she said.
But there were moments when she felt "frustrated" as she had to focus on every nuance to express herself.
"At times, working on the film was excruciating because we were used to a certain working space and other things. But here, the concentration was on every single detail, every stroke and every line.
"So at times, I used to feel frustrated but then, I would say it to myself that it is too rare to get an experience like this. So I should just savour every bit of it and enjoy it. And I did."
Aditi believes in embodying a character, both mentally and emotionally, to successfully pull it off.
"When I pick a character or a script, then I don't look for similarities I have with the character. Since I'm very visual in my approach, the first thing I ask myself is whether I understand the person I'm playing. I imagine myself as that person and sometimes it happens effortlessly."
Produced by Vijay Babu's Friday Film House banner, "Sufiyum Sujatayum" premiered on Amazon Prime Video on Friday.
