Actor Urvashi recently won her second National Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ullozhukku. Way back in 2005, she won her first award for her stint in Achuvinte Amma. In a recent interview with anchor Gobinath, the actor opened up about how she came into the world of cinema and how she was petrified of the camera when she was a child artist.
Speaking about her accidental entry into cinema, she shared, "My entire family was associated with cinema, so in a way, I was always surrounded by the medium. But I actually made my debut as a child artist by accident. I had accompanied my sister to a film shoot, where they were looking for a young girl who is bathed and clothed by her on-screen father. Since my sister was slightly older than the age they had in mind, they cast me instead."
Urvashi candidly recollects that she was extremely afraid of the camera. "This was in the late 1970s, and I remember being terrified of the camera. It used to make a loud, mechanical noise that scared me." She further narrated an incident from one of her very early films where she fainted when the camera started rolling. "There was also a Malayalam version of Kalathoor Kannamma being made at the time. My younger brother played the role originally done by Kamal Haasan Sir. He was barely three, but he had memorised the entire song. The director, who knew my father, asked me and my two other siblings to stand in the background and sing the chorus. I still remember the massive 5-watt lights on set; they looked monstrous to me. When the director called out "Lights!" and they were switched on, I fainted out of sheer fear," she explained.
Urvashi made her debut in a lead role in Bhagyaraj's Munthanai Mudichu in 1983, when she was just 13. "When I debuted as a heroine in Munthanai Mudichu, I felt comfortable when the camera was off, especially since I was always surrounded by children on set. But the moment the director said the shot was ready, I would get nervous." She credits the director, who also played the lead in the film, for making her perform. "It was Bhagyaraj Sir's efforts that shaped my performance. I didn’t make any special effort to ensure the film’s success. In fact, if someone scolded me on set, I’d simply walk away and go home. A manager was even appointed just to ensure I ate properly. He’d come after me with a lathi, threatening me to eat so I could put on some weight."
When it came to sentiment, though, Urvashi says that was her cup of tea. "I didn’t struggle with the emotional scenes in Munthanai Mudichu, perhaps because I was raised in the environment of my father’s drama troupe. I had grown up watching my father and his fellow artistes perform. I remember Bhagyaraj Sir would even wear a saree to teach me how to walk and act for certain scenes," she said, adding that to this day, before she applies makeup for any shoot, she thinks of him. "I wouldn’t be who I am without his guidance."
Urvashi was last seen in Prince and Family in Malayalam and Emakku Thozhil Romance in Tamil. She recently spoke out against the decision to award her the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for Ullozhukku, calling for greater transparency in the jury’s selection process.
