Giorgia Andriani: I am fortunate to have made my Tamil debut with Meena

It took three hours for Giorgia Andriani to prepare for the audition of Karoline Kamakshi, the latest Zee5 action-comedy web series which also stars Meena in a titular role. “It was all in Tamil, and I had to learn it on the spot,” says Andriani. At the end of her audition, she walked out with the role. “It all happened very fast. I was told about the show only a day before the audition. So, everything worked out in just a day,” she adds.

Andriani will be seen as a French agent in India, who has to stop an international smuggler from selling a priceless artifact belonging to the French government. “Karoline is ruthless, which is quite different from who I am. I think I am a compassionate person but this character is a cut-throat personality. It was challenging,” Andriani says.

However, Tamil was much more challenging. “It is nothing like Hindi or other languages I know. I wanted to get the dialogues right. Sometimes, I used prompting.”

The difficulty in learning the language didn’t stop her from falling in love with Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, “People keep telling everyone to go to Goa or Manali but for me, Tamil Nadu is right up there in the list. I never expected this place to be this beautiful. The road from Chennai to Pondicherry is just… amazing!”

As the conversation veers towards the show, Andriani, a film student and an erstwhile assistant director, says the way Indian film industries functions is entirely different from the West. “They are two different worlds. In India, you hardly tend to stick to a plan. In the UK, irrespective of the situation, people go only by the script. But I like it here because people are open to experimenting.”

Andriani gets excited when I ask her about Meena. “I am fortunate to have made my debut with her. She is a super-cool person, and not just as a co-actor. She has guided me a lot. She would tell me beforehand about the shot and other nuances. I am new to the industry and her warmth meant a lot to me.”

Andriani will next be seen in a song in Priya Prakash Varrier’s upcoming film, Sridevi Bungalow. “I am also in talks with a few Bollywood projects.”