Malavika Mohanan: Being an actor is a full time job today but I will never get used to it

Actor Malavika Mohanan talks about the entire paparazzi culture, and how she navigates her way through the pressure that comes along.

Malavika Mohanan has been in the film business for over eight years now, and if there’s one thing she still can’t wrap her head around, it is the need for actors today to look their best round the clock.

Actor Malavika Mohanan will be seen next in the Hindi film Yudhra with Sidhant Chaturvedi.

“The one thing I still don’t get is looking glamorous all the time. I can’t,” she admits, and continues, “And this paparazzi culture, arre yaar, yeh kya hai? I am somebody who loves to dress up, but when stepping out to go to a salon or restaurant, I am always in loose clothes with my hair tied in a bun. I do not like putting on makeup every single day, and like to let my skin breathe.”

And what this leads to is something Mohanan again doesn’t understand: “When you get papped in these kind of clothes, you look ridiculous. And then you realise, you are going to be clicked, so you have to put on some makeup, which is another process. It is an added two hours to getting ready. So you have to look good all the time,” she says.

Mohanan agrees that being an actor is a “full time job”, and calls it something she would never get used to.

“I will probably figure out a way to do it, but I am not very kicked about it,” explains the 27-year-old, whose Hindi film career began with Beyond The Clouds, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Majid Majidi.

Since then, the actor has not taken up any Hindi movie, but made a mark for herself in Telugu and Tamil films such as Petta and Master, both of which released recently. She will be seen next in Yudhra opposite Sidhant Chaturvedi. Asked if anything has changed in the process of choosing films from the time she entered the business to now, and she says nothing of it has changed.

“The kind and amount of films being offered to me are bigger though, I have a bigger roster to pick up from, and across different industries. I have got more offers in Hindi in the last six months. It’s a matter of picking which projects I want to be a part of,” Mohanan ends.