These days, our films face scrutiny to the very last second: Ramya Ranganathan

An IT audit professional who became a content creator, Ramya Ranganathan turned actress and made her big screen debut earlier this year with Dhanush’s Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam ( NEEK ).

She calls debuting in a film directed by Dhanush “a humbling experience”. Excerpts from a chat:‘BEING ON THE NEEK SET WAS LIKE BEING ON A PICNIC WITH FRIENDS’When I got the call from Dhanush sir’s production, I thought it was a prank as it was so out of the blue. I was informed he’d like to meet me the next day. I went thinking that I’d at least get to meet him once. He told me he approached me after seeing my dance reel and thought I had expressive eyes. Then, we had an audition in which I performed a scene from Thiruchitrambalam .

It was terrifying to perform in front of Dhanush sir, but after my performance, he said, ‘OK, we are good to go.

’ Being on the NEEK set was like being on a picnic with friends. We are all still in touch and ask each other about what’s going on with our respective careers. sambar vada from a nearby cafe.‘For me, Chennai is an emotion’I was born and brought up in Chennai. It’s an emotion for me. Even if I go somewhere else for two days, I always look forward to coming back here.

Recently, I had gone to Europe on a vacation, but I couldn’t wait to come back to Chennai and have amma ’s filter coffee. My kind of Sunday is going to the Marina Beach in the morning and having sambar vada from a nearby cafe.‘I WAS TERRIFIED TO ACT IN FRONT OF 150-200 PEOPLE’Within a month of my audition, the film’s shoot started, but I wasn’t part of those portions. Still, I went and observed what was happening at the shoot because it was my first time on a film set. Dhanush sir wanted me to get used to that environment so that it would be free-flowing for me when I began shooting.

I saw how the others were acting and paid attention to the corrections Dhanush sir shared with the actors. I was terrified to act in front of 150-200 people without any inhibitions.

But before my first shot, I gave a small pep talk to myself. As the days passed, my confidence built up, and I found the metre of the character. While filming NEEK , I developed so much interest in acting as it is not a monotonous job. Every day, there’s a challenge on how to do a scene.‘IT’S NORMAL FOR A FILM TO GET BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REVIEWS’Even though NEEK was subjected to intense online trolling, especially after its OTT release, Ramya shares that she didn’t take it to heart. “ NEEK was supposed to be a free-flowing love story and a chill watch. Honestly, I think that our all-time favourites’ My all-time favourite actor since I was a child is Madhavan sir. Among actresses, it’s always been Simran ma’am. She is versatile and used to do dignified glamour roles as well as challenging roles.

When I recently met her, I was completely starstruck. I told her I started dancing after seeing her videos.generation’s films are scrutinised to every last second. Some people might like a particular genre of film while others won’t. I think no matter how good a film is, there will be all kinds of reviews for it. Now that there’s social media, everybody is a reviewer. I think it’s normal for a film to get both positive and negative reviews these days,” she says.‘WHENEVER I’M STRESSED, IT’S DANCE THAT HAS HELPED MEI’m a hip-hop dancer. When I was a child, my mom couldn’t put me in a hip-hop class because there was a stereotype against Western dance at that time. So, I used to watch tutorials and videos on YouTube. Whenever I’m stressed, happy or sad, it’s dance that has helped me. I lock the door for two hours and just go all out dancing. Initially, I used to dance while watching Shriya Saran ma’am and Simran ma’am’s videos on TV.