Darshana Rajendran: Would love to work across Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films, because they are all so different

Director Prasanna Vithanage's Paradise won an award at the Busan International Film Festival 2023 and will screen at the 2023 Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) on October 29 and October 30.

Darshana Rajendran was working in microfinance in Chennai when she joined a theatre group. This ignited a passion for acting, and in 2014 she landed her first role in the Malayalam movie John Paul Vaathil Thurakkunnu. A small part in the 2018 film Koode got her more roles, with a significant part in the 2020 screen-life thriller C U Soon. 2022 was a seminal year for the Kochi-based actress who had starring roles in Hridayam, Dear Friend and Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey.

Rajendran has acted in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi films. Her first international project, Paradise, directed by Prasanna Vithanage, won an award at the Busan International Film Festival 2023 and will screen at the Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) on October 29 and October 30.

Paradise is the delicately enacted story of a young couple (Rajendran and Roshan Mathew) whose celebratory holiday in Sri Lanka is dramatically and shockingly impacted by their struggles with societal, interpersonal, ideological and political challenges. Excerpts from an interview with Rajendran:

How was the experience of the Busan International Film Festival, where your Paradise won the Kim Jiseok Award for Best Film?

I think this was the first time I was able to participate in a festival where a film I’m acting in was screening. I was very surprised how knowledgeable the audience was about Malayalam cinema. They even knew a lot of my work. The audience at Busan was very invested. It was a lovely experience.

You've worked with Roshan Mathew a few times. Did that make it easier to play a young married couple in Paradise?

Paradise was a lovely collaboration with a bunch of really nice artists coming together to shoot in Sri Lanka. Roshan and I first worked together in Koode where I played a very small part. Then we did a segment called ‘Rani’ in an anthology called Aanum Pennum. Then came C U Soon. In between we worked on a play, which he directed in Kochi. He’s one of those collaborators I have known since we started acting. We have followed each other's journey closely and know each other very well. I love working with him. He knows my tricks. He knows when I'm not fully there, or fully honest and he’ll call me out. It’s a great balance between full support and also pushing me to do my best.

Paradise has many different themes or layers. Was there any one that you connected with most?

Specifically, I connected with the relationship between these two people, and how you see something but there are 10 different things happening underneath. It was very nice to explore that. I had very few dialogues to express all the things that were going on in my character Amritha’s head, or with the relationship. I really enjoyed that. I also had Roshan to do this whole give and take with. You see that change at the dinner table. The film starts with this really sweet couple on a holiday and from there it goes into something that you don't see coming. Through the film you see Amritha as this kind person who is connecting with the local kids there, who is so nice to her husband. She is vegetarian, concerned about the environment. All this leads up to her doing something that isn't very angelic. Truly I would have loved to perform any of these characters. They're all layered, but also so human.

If you had to pick, what would you say was your breakout role?

Maybe C U Soon. It reached audiences because Fahadh Faasil is in it and people said oh, Darshana is actually an actor. But I wouldn't say that was my breakthrough. In my journey, I think each of the films that I chose to do somehow made way for something else. I played a very small character in Koode. At that point, I used to think, okay, these are the kinds of things that are coming to me, but does playing one or two scenes in something like this excite me?

Geetu Mohandas (actress, filmmaker) saw one of my scenes in Koode and that got me an audition for Thuramukham. So, I feel like each of these films has sort of been a breakthrough, in a way that they led to something else. Then there was Hridayam which was a very unconventional casting choice. I had never been placed in a light college space before. People recognize me from Hridayam. And then Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey. I know that each of these films served different purposes in my career. And I am glad I was a part of all of them.

Of all these characters, have you felt most connected to anyone?

I think I find a way to connect to all in different ways. I think I relate most to my character in ‘Rani’ (Aanum Pennum). She's a badass. She's very clear. She knows what she wants with her body. She's not apologetic in any way. That character was very liberating.

You’ve worked in the Hindi film industry too, with a part in Shikha Madan’s story in the Unpaused: Naya Safar anthology. There is so much talk about pan-Indian films and pan-Indian stars. Do you have any interest in exploring Hindi language films?

These are languages I speak. Any film in any language I can communicate in is definitely an avenue for me. It’s not like I'm out to do something in a particular film industry. There is work coming from Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and of course Malayalam but the criteria for me is the same – am I excited to do it. I'm obviously most fluent in Malayalam. That's the place I most belong to and that's the language I know I would be a better actor in. But these are all industries I would love to work in because they are all so different. I am currently working on my first Telugu film. It's directed by Praveen Kandregula (Cinema Bandi). There are a bunch of other Malayalam things too, which I'm very excited about.

You're an actor who's learning on the job. What have you learned from some of the filmmakers you have worked with?

Each place I go to, it's a new school, and I'm very careful about the environment I'm picking. Unless I'm very sure that I can fully trust that space, I don't do it because I know that once I'm there, I'm fully ready to absorb and open up to anything. So, it's a vulnerable space.

I am really fortunate that I got to work with directors such as Rajeev Ravi (Thuramukham), Aashiq Abu (Virus), Mahesh Narayanan (C U Soon) and Prasanna Vithanage. Mahesh Narayanan works in a particular style. He is very clear about what he wants and he will make sure that he gets that even if it means going for 25 takes. It’s absolutely wonderful going through those 25 takes and finding what you're looking for. So as an actor I am ready to give those 25 takes.

Then there’s Vineet Sreenivasan (Hridhyam) who didn’t let me do more than two takes. In fact, he almost always went with the first take, because for him it's very much about spontaneity and what comes in that moment organically being closest to the truth. These are very different schools of filmmaking and as an actor I am fully shaped by that.

If any of these directors call me, I won't hesitate and show up, fully ready and present.