Kicking Off Her Heels

COLUMN: LOCATION DIARY

Prayaga Martin talks about her experiences in the films, ‘Kattappanayile Hrithik Roshan’, ‘Viswasapoorvam Mansoor’ and 'Fukri'

By Shevlin Sebastian

In Kattappanayile Hrithik Roshan (2016), Prayaga Martin is standing on a stage and doing an audition. For that, she has to mouth the dialogues of Revathi, wh plays a Bharatnatyam dancer in 'Devasuram'. Sitting behind a table are the three judges. After she concludes her dialogues, Prayaga is supposed to accidentally kick her platform heels at the middle judge played by an actor called Suraj.

“The first time I kicked off my heels, it went and hit the false ceiling,” says Prayaga. “As a result, some of the thermocol broke off.” So the shooting had to be stopped for a while. Then the second time, the heel went and hit a very sensitive part of an associate director standing nearby. Prayaga had to apologise profusely. Then finally, after a few retakes, it hit the judge, who spilled a cup of tea on to his clothes. “I felt the need to apologise to the judge even though it was part of the story, and one of the funniest scenes in the film,” says Prayaga.

In Viswasapoorvam Mansoor (2017), Prayaga enjoyed other humorous moments. There was a night schedule at Tellicherry. Asha Sharath was getting ready inside her room. Zarina Wahab and Prayaga were waiting outside. After a while Zarina knocked on the door.

“Coming,” said Asha.

Suddenly a gruff male voice said, “Hey Asha open the door.”

Prayaga got shocked. “I was thinking, 'Where is this voice coming from?'” she says.

Asha got scared. She said, “Who is this?”

The voice again said, “Hey, open the door, Asha.”

Prayaga turned to the right and got another shock. It was Zarina who was impersonating a man's voice. “We all had a big laugh later on,” says Prayaga.

Zarina continued with her pranks. Once, when Prayaga and Zarina had a shooting schedule in Hyderabad, she asked for the number of Roshan Mathew who has a role in the film. He was in Mumbai at that time. So, Prayaga gave it to her.

Zarina called Roshan, and said, “Hey I am a big fan of yours. My name is Pooja. I am a student from Mumbai. Are you single? I really want to marry you.”

Roshan said, “Who are you?”

Zarina said, “I want to marry you. I want to marry you.”

Roshan got a little scared. “He thought that Pooja was a mad fan, so he agreed to marry, and then cut off the line,” says Prayaga.

In the film, 'Fukri', it was the time of Prayaga to have fun. Somehow, word got around that she is a good mimic. So, the crew asked her to mimic Jayasurya, who has a role in the film. So, she did it in front of Jayasurya, who was impressed. And he told director Siddique. When he heard that she could mimic him, Siddique asked her to do so in front of the entire crew at a bungalow in Pala.

“Whenever I would see Sidique Sir on the set, I would bend my head and say, 'Hi Sir, good evening',” says Prayaga. “He talked in a soft but hoarse voice and always asked me, 'Where is your father and mother?'”

So Prayaga mimicked that. And everybody, including Siddique, burst out laughing. Emboldened, she continued with a skit between Jayasurya and Siddique.

“I imitated a conversation between Jaya Chettan where he is giving an idea to Siddique Sir, who says, 'No, we don't want that here',” says Prayaga. “'We can try it later. At this moment, can you do what I have told you?'” 

(The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)