Shruthy Menon: I had doubts, but later found Spa empowering and hilarious

Shruthy Menon played one of the lead roles in Abdrid Shine’s Spa, an adult comedy about a massage centre run by women and frequented by men, who go there to fulfil sexual fantasies and needs. The Mumbai-based actress speaks to us about initial apprehensions in playing the role, and how the Malayalam industry always boasted superior storytelling.

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‘The satisfaction I get in Malayalam is special’Shruthy is now working on a Bollywood project, and also has two Malayalam films - Salim Ahmed’s movie and M Padmakumar sir’s Dharmadom PS - set for release. “I play a small, but pivotal characters. My 2024 was relatively free after doing Vadakkan and then, I was just rushing from one set to another in 2025, but then, I thrive on chaos,” says the actress.She’s partial to the Malayalam industry, she says. “I’m choosy about what I want to do.

Malayalam cinema is something that people are recognising now, but we have always been superior in terms of storytelling, with amazing writers who pen in amazing women characters, even in the '70s. So, if I'm offered a Malayalam film and a commercial Bollywood project, I’d probably pick the former. The satisfaction that I get here is special,” she explains.

‘I could play Zara because the audience mindset is changing’Speaking about playing Zara, who has some bold scenes, in Abrid’s film, she says, “When I got Zara, the challenge for me was to think of her as a character.

I had to get out of my head. I was very apprehensive when Shine chetan told me about it. But the audience's mindset is changing, with exposure to different genres, languages and films from across the world. They understand there is so much outside the cocoon we are living in.

I think convincing myself was a big challenge. But Shine chetan knew what he wanted. He was clear that we were going to make this element part of a whole comical fiasco.”She says that the mood on the sets was very light-hearted and something that helped the actresses - including Radhika Radhakrishnan and Sreeja Das - was they were all doing the bold scenes. “And we got along like a house on fire. On set, the technicians were laughing, so it was like getting immediate response from an audience. Radhika and I kept it at a comedic level,” she says.

‘People can look at an adult theme not just from stripping a woman’Shruthy is happy that her role "did not get a single bad comment”.

“Even when the film released, we did not get any negative feedback. Maybe at first people were uncomfortable, because here was a film exposing men’s sexual thinking,” she says, adding. “So I feel men got uncomfortable, but there was not a single bad comment, which I found very empowering as a woman. It was a new concept of not dissecting the woman anymore.

” Shruthy hopes that with this film, people can see adult themes from not just the perspective of women’s sexuality, but also from the men's. “Shine chetan has a knack for doing things you don’t expect and I hope, people catch on to the idea and say, 'Yes, this is also a way to do it', without having to strip and sexualise a woman’s body anymore. You can have something empowering and hilarious. It would be wonderful if this is the beginning of something new.

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