The biggest challenge Malayalam cinema faces is territorial. We operate within a small territory in Kerala, and the Malayalam diaspora across the world in comparative terms is quite small. But we have world-class talent in terms of technicians, actors, and writers.
Kerala is a small state, and Malayalam films are seen by only very few people. That doesn't bother me.
France can compete with the Hollywood studios in terms of animation savoir-faire, but not in terms of box-office figures. France is a small country, and the Americans are the masters of the world - for cinema, it's true.
My thought process is in Malayalam. So, every time I have to work outside Malayalam, the process is a little stressful. I have to translate my Malayalam thoughts into English and back to Tamil.
Because of the excellent training in Malayalam cinema, where we have very tight budgets, you are forced to make it work in a small budget and at the same time you have to tell the story effectively.
I was really looking forward to the release of 'Villain.' I put in a lot of hard work, and I am glad people are noticing basic things - like how I synced perfectly with the Malayalam dialogues or that I came across as a Malayalam girl - makes me feel wonderful.
Coming from the Malayalam sets, when I went to Telugu, people told me that I wasn't acting and that it felt dead. It was very subtle in Malayalam, while it is slightly dramatic in Telugu. It is quite fascinating to understand what each industry expects of you and work according to that.
And so in terms of territorial control, in terms of economic preeminence, the western share of the gross world product is declining as Asian societies in particular develop economically.
I studied in Kerala, so learnt to read and write Malayalam.
Malayalam industry is pretty awesome, and I will definitely do a movie in Malayalam. There are some great directors over there.
In Kerala, people are more educated, so you can have subtlety in Malayalam films.
I am quite content with my work in Malayalam cinema, and so there was never any reason to look outside for opportunities.
In Malayalam, I can improvise, and acting is easy because I think in Malayalam, but for 'Velaikkaran,' I had to prepare for a role, which is a first for me.
Architecture is involved with the world, but at the same time it has a certain autonomy. This autonomy cannot be explained in terms of traditional logic because the most interesting parts of the work are non-verbal. They operate within the terms of the work, like any art.
Evolving our culture to operate and think differently is no small task. We are challenging our employees to be the best of both small and big companies - they should operate with the soul and spirit of a startup, while leveraging the scale, resources and capabilities of Campbell - with the goal of ultimately becoming the biggest small company.
My place is cemented in Malayalam films. Malayalam is not my language and it felt alien to me. But for them, I am someone from Karnataka who could deliver.
Quarantine has really affected me in terms of thinking about what the rest of the world is going through and what isolation within a small space might be like.