Actor Nayanthara recalled a heated moment on the set of one of her earliest films, when veteran director Fazil appeared to lose patience with her. She said that her illustrious co-star, Mohanlal, tried to give her some advice, but she couldn’t make sense of what he was telling her. Nayanthara ended up having an outburst, while Faazil needed several hours to himself as he tried to salvage the situation.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, Nayanthara recalled how untrained she was when she started out. She said, “I still remember, there was a day when Fazil sir got really upset with me, and he was like, ‘I really can’t take it, you’re not understanding’. First of all, I don’t think in Malayalam, and cinema language is different from the language that we speak. Mohanlal sir kept telling me, ‘Nayan, you have to emote from within’. He kept on saying that and I got so annoyed.”
Nayanthara continued, “I said, ‘Sir, I don’t even know what I’m doing. I don’t even know what dialogue I’m saying’. You’re telling me to come stand on this mark, don’t put a shadow on me, shed a tear at this word, fall in love at that word. What are you asking me to emote from? I don’t have anything inside me. There is nothing inside me. There is only fear inside me. He just laughed and told me to take a break.”
Nayanthara said that Fazil got ‘really upset’ after the exchange, and went off to take a break. “He sat by himself in a corner. After two hours, he came back and he said, ‘Listen, I really trust you, and I’m going to trust you again. I want a rock-solid performance, and I can’t be a failure. I’m calling a break today, tomorrow you come back and then we’ll decide.’ I genuinely felt very bad for him.” Nayanthara resolved to work hard to please Fazil, and her diligence paid off. The next day, the director told her that he’s proud of her, and gave her a hug. The film that they were working on was called Vismayathumbathu.
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