I don’t play the clichéd, scary yakshis: Prayaga

Prayaga Martin started her film career with one of the frontrunner horror movies of Tamil, 'Pisaasu', where she played a likeable, non-scary ghost.

After the hit Mysskin film, the Malayali girl also stepped into Mollywood recently through '

Oru Murai Vanthu Parthaya

' and this time too, she played a ghost and no ordinary one at that.
Kochi Times quizzes her about the continued ‘association’ with spirits and more, in a tete-e-tete.

What is so ‘ghostly’ about you that such characters are coming to you repeatedly?
(Laughs) There isn’t anything eerie or unnatural about me. Personally, I am not even a fan of horror movies. Both Bhavani of Pisaasu and Parvathi of Oru Murai… aren’t the clichéd scary yakshis with vampire teeth, fire-emitting eyes etc. My characters have not even worn coloured-eye lens and they appear as normal girls, which is why I took them up. I also enjoyed dubbing for Oru Murai... I thought it would be tough dubbing for the loud, ghostly laughter portions but that was the easiest part of the process. It was also my first experience ever in dubbing, and it was fun.

Now that the ‘horror’ trend is making inroads into Malayalam as well, will you lap up more of such roles?
I don’t want to repeat myself, and want to try roles of other interesting dimensions, because of which I won’t be playing a ghost again — at least anytime soon. The characters I have picked to play in my upcoming movies are in no way similar to the ones I have already done. I believe we improve our craft when we lay our hands on new and different genres of roles.

Your dhavani look was much discussed, soon after the first song of the film Oru Murai… was released...
I am not used to wearing it often, and the scenes involved me walking a lot on paddy fields in Palakkad. I couldn’t see the pits and bumps on the field due to the pleats of the long skirt and so would trip and fall often. Thankfully it was not raining and I didn’t mess up my costumes.

Tell us about your roles in

Pa.Va

and Ore Mugham
I can’t divulge much, but Pa.Va is the film I first shot for in Malayalam and in that, I play a character that is the exact opposite of the roles, so far. In Ore Mugham, I play a college girl of the 80s.