R. ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, MAY 28
Kollywood star Jyotika, whose film `Ponmagal Vandhal’ is slated to be released by the Amazon Prime on Friday (May 29), says in her second innings as an actor she wants to do movies that reflect contemporary real-life on the screen.
• I'm always been her Fan and then her Friend, We Fell In love and then we got marriage & She is a superior actor – @Suriya_offl about #Jyotika
#PonmagalVandhalOnPrime From May 29 #PonmagalVandhal pic.twitter.com/WEssVcGykG
— Suriya Fans Club Kerala™ (@AKSFWA1) May 27, 2020
The actor said one of the reasons for her to board the JJ Fredrick-directed film is its focus on the system’s failure in tackling child abduction and rape cases.
“I read about crimes against women and children almost every other day in news media. I’d often discuss it with Suriya (her actor husband) at home about why the law is taking so much time for justice when it comes to these cases.
“So when Fredrick brought a script that was questioning our legal system in a realistic and presentable way, I really got attracted to this project. Donning the role of a lawyer was refreshing because no other leading lady in Tamil cinema in recent years had played a lawyer,” she said.
(Yesteryear actor Sujatha had played a lead role as a lawyer in Tamil Film “Vidhi (Fate)” many years ago, in which she fought to get justice for a girl who had become pregnant when she had a relationship with her lover.)
Having made a strong comeback with the 2015 film “36 Vayadhinile”, Jyotika has been very picky about her projects in her second innings.
The actor said it’s been a conscious decision to not repeat some mistakes from her first innings and sign films that serve no purpose.
“There’s so much happening around us and it’s time to highlight them on screen. I’m a mother of two young children and I stop them from seeing so many films because of its content. Even in quarantine, there are very few films that they can watch.
“In my second innings, I wanted to do films that even they can watch and this is why I choose my scripts carefully,” she added.
The film is the first mainstream Tamil film to have a direct OTT release, bypassing theatres for the first time in the industry due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Jyotika said it was the only solution given that theatres will remain shut in the near future due to the coronavirus situation. She hopes that streaming helps earn her a new set of audience.
“It took us some time to understand what we were doing but we knew this is a beautiful platform for content-driven films. As we all know that theatres won’t open for few more months and there will be a traffic of films vying for release, we didn’t even see a chance of Ponmagal Vandhal coming out for at least a year and a half. Given these factors, this was the best decision,” she said.
The actor said small, content-rich films like her latest one wait for months to find a suitable theatrical release window but on the streaming platform, they can have a bigger audience exposure.
“It’s a matter for pride for Tamil cinema, especially for small, content-rich films which generally have to wait for months and even years to find a theatrical release. At the end of the day, it makes me feel like a hero that my film will be released in over 200 countries. We are going global and I hope to earn a new set of audiences,” Jyotika said.
Going the streaming way in the times of a pandemic like a coronavirus is, in fact, a boon for women-centric and small budget movies, she said.
“My film’s trailer clocked over 10 million in just 2-3 days. It’s a never before attained feat for any of my films. This is proof of the phenomenal reach of the platform.
“I also feel that our films need as much respect as the bigger, hero-centric films get. We need more audiences to watch our films and we hope they’d get to watch this way. We put three times the effort in making these films as it’s completely script-oriented. I think we all deserve an equal amount of respect which we get from such a platform,” the actor added.
