Actress Shakeela says that the Malayalam cinema, which once made a brand out of her is now scared to cast her in films. She also stated that producers from Kerala cheated her financially. Shakeela was speaking at ‘The Myth of Morality’ session at the seventh edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) in Kozhikode.
Speaking about how the Malayalam movie industry is hesitant to cast her, Shakeela said, “Now they say that if they cast me, the film will be perceived differently.”
During the conversation, Shakeela also recalled how back in the time the producers from Kerala would financially exploit her. She revealed that the producers would shoot scenes for other projects without her knowledge. Shakeela further stated that there were also instances where the cheque given by the filmmaker bounced, which led her to refuse to take the cheques. “There were instances where I go for the shoot of a film, and they would make me shoot scenes for another film without letting me know. Because of my language barrier, I often had no clue what was happening. Eventually, I started telling them that I will not shoot in Kerala anymore, because here they would be calling all of the shots. I decided that I will only shoot in Chennai from now on,” she revealed.
While speaking at the event Shakeela also reminisced about how she was denied permission to enter a shopping mall in Kozhikode for a trailer launch. “Now who can stop me!” Shakeela asked as she spoke to the people gathered around to attend the literature festival.