People think I am a confident person, but I always need support: Madonna Sebastian

It’s been almost two years since Madonna Sebastian last acted in a Mollywood film.

The actress who shot to fame with Premam was previously seen in Siddique’s King Liar. While she has been flitting about in other South industries and working with her music band, it’s been radio silence from the actress in the past year.

But that’s set to change as the actress is gearing up to return to Mollywood with

Iblis

, which also stars Asif Ali. The actress opens up about her sabbatical and her new interests:

You are back to the industry after a two-year break.

Back in the industry? I never went away (laughs). In Malayalam, yes, and it is because I was waiting for something exciting to come up. It’s also because unlike the first half of last year, in which I was working for almost six months without even a day’s break, I decided to go easy and take enough leisure time in between work. During that hectic part of the year, I was also unwell and did not even get to rest well. I was disturbed by a type of headache for almost one and a half years, which I guess was sinusitis-induced and it became severe.

All the dust and sun during the shoots and not being able to take care of my body and mind, only aggravated it. I consulted many doctors but none could help. Finally, I went to a kalari gurukkal who gave me an oil. I also started meditating and the combo helped. It disappeared magically, in five days, and now I am absolutely fine.

In the past few months, meanwhile, I also travelled a lot. I went to Goa twice, Manali, Abu Dhabi and even to Munnar, a couple of times. Moreover, I spent a lot of time with family. That was something I had to catch up on. Basically, though I was involved with work, I was not stressed and took enough breaks. That’s also when Iblis came by and the story was quite interesting, so I took it up.

Tell us about the film.

I am not allowed to speak much about it yet; all I can say is that I play a girl who belongs to a particular village. At the same time, there is nothing clichéd about her or the rustic set up she is part of.

What else is keeping you busy these days?

I am a lot into reading now as I have realised that it helps immensely in my work. Whenever I am home, that’s something I spent a lot of time on. Also, I am heavily into meditation. That’s working very well. In fact, I have kind of become its promoter and I am telling everyone to practise it. I have better peace of mind now.

How has meditation helped you?

Well, when you work in this industry, it’s risky. Also, I am a very sensitive person at heart. People who meet me would think that I am a very confident person, but that’s not the truth. I always need support.

There are times when you take a risk regarding work and your near and dear are worried. Questions like ‘Why should you not be doing this? Shouldn’t you be getting married or be doing a desk job or go to college and take a PhD?’ keep floating around and there are times when one would feel quite low. Meditation is now helping me stay positive and tell myself that it’s all going to be fine. When I talk about it, I don’t know how important it sounds, but many people I know, including my friends, have all benefitted from it and are happy.

What’s up with your band?

We have put together the tune of our next song and will soon fix the lyrics too. As of now the programming is being done. Once that’s over, we would start working on a video for it as well, as music videos reach out better to people than audio. At the same time, all the band members have been busy with other assignments too, so we haven’t been rushing into anything. We are gradually making progress in our own terms; we want to do everything properly.

What are the other projects in the pipeline?

My next release will be Junga, a neo-noir gangster comedy with

Vijay Sethupathy

. A song from the film, which I am part of, should be out in April. I wrapped up the shoot for the film in Pollachi, a few weeks ago. I am also taking part in the workshop for another movie and am also busy with its pre-shoot work. But I can’t reveal anything about it yet.