Shamna Kasim all set to make a grand comeback

Mollywood has seen her only in a handful of supporting roles (Manjupoloru Penkutty, Pachakkuthira and Alibhai) before she embraced Tollywood. But now, actress Shamna Kasim is back with a film that sets the stage for her grand comeback.
Director Santosh Sethumadhavan’s remake of his father’s yesteryear directorial, Chattakkari, has Shamna playing the central character, Julie.
Shamna thinks she’s lucky to get a female-centric film to break her hiatus in M’wood. “Rarely do heroine-oriented films happen in the film industry. I started the shoot without any apprehensions but as days passed, I realised how indelible a mark yesteryear’s Chattakkari, and its central character Julie, have left on the Malayali psyche. But please people! Don’t compare me to veteran actor Lakshmi who immortalised Julie in director Sethumadhavan’s Chattakkari. It’s so unnerving,” she confides.
Shamna claims it’s her wait for a role as powerful as Julie that took her close to five years to come back to M’wood. Has Mollywood changed over the years, we ask. “There’s a lot of difference in the way Shamna the supporting actor and Shamna the lead actor is treated,” she says.
And with Chattakkari, the actress hopes more convincing roles will come her way in M’wood. That’s precisely why she bought a house in Kochi recently.
In Tollywood, Shamna, christened Poorna, is now shooting her first horror flick, Avanu. “This, again, has a lot of prominence for the heroine. But let me tell you, I don’t play a ghost. I’m all the more excited as the makers are planning to release it in Malayalam too."