Exclusive - I even wanted to quit the show at one point: Sillunu Oru Kadhal actress Darshini Gowda on playing Kayal, police training and more

Kayal is no longer a trainee but a police officer now. In the recent episode of Sillunu oru Kadhal, Kayal graduated from the police academy to be an officer. The TV show, which witnessed bank heists, murder mysteries, and other intriguing crime investigations, took a plunge into romantic drama once again. Fans are waiting patiently to witness the reunion of Suriya and Kayalvizhi now.

In an exclusive chat with ETimes TV, Darshini Gowda opened up about her journey as Kayal for the past two seasons of the TV series.

"It was difficult", says the actress when she opened up about the challenges she faced, as Kayal was a police academy trainee, who underwent physically demanding training and stunt scenes. The actress said, "For the past one year, not just me but all of us have suffered a lot as most of the shoots were shot on the open grounds. We did not have many options. For the past year, SOK (Sillunu oru Kadhal) has been the most watched show on the channel. So we have to give our 100%. One might wonder if they are the same ‘Kayal’ and ‘Suriya’, as our skins have tanned a lot now."

She also adds, "In general, I hate physical activities like gymming, running, etc. But in the shooting spot, they asked me to do a hurdle run under the bright sunlight. However, if given the option, I would keep picking such interesting roles in upcoming days too."

Dharshini Gowda also thinks that playing a not-so run-of-the-mill TV serial role has its own perks. She says, "These days female roles in TV serials are quite mundane. Someone has to scold her, and she has to be grumpy throughout the episodes. In the early days of the SOK, when Kayal and Suriya got married, I needed to wear at least ten sarees a day. It was boring and I constantly questioned myself about what I was doing. But when the storyline changed to the police academy, everything changed. No other television actress would have worn as many modern costumes as I did. For every chapter, the crew ensured that my outfits were different. One could see me in all sorts of modern clothes: Shirts, jeans, T-shirts, track pants etc."

Speaking about those episodes in Police Academy, the actress said, "After each mystery gets solved, everyone in the set would be waiting curiously to know the one line of the next mystery. The best part about SOK is that nothing gets repeated, even the outfits I wear for one sequence won't be repeated next time.’ She also adds, "I don't want family drama nowadays (laughs)."

When quizzed about her role as a police officer, she said, "I never anticipated that Kayal would enter a police academy at the beginning. If one sees me in person, nobody will say I can play a police role. I look like an adolescent girl. In fact, according to the story, at the time Kayal gets married, she is only 17. I think that’s why they chose me in the first place.

But they shocked me by saying I should be a trainee in the police academy. At first, everyone had doubts about whether I would be able to pull off this role. I had inhibitions about whether the people would accept me as a police officer or not. At one point, I thought of leaving the series so that they could replace me with suitable looking artists. But two weeks after the police academy episodes started airing, the show climbed to the top position in the trp charts of the channel and there is no looking back."

Talking about the loyal fan following that ’Kayal-Suriya’ enjoys on social media, the actress says, "A lot of fans capture even small, small reactions of Kayal-Suriya and upload them on their social media. Whenever the promo is uploaded, you can see their comments and how much they are waiting for Suriya and Kayal to reunite. They are like our celebrations on screen. In recent episodes, Suriya and Kayal got engaged. Fans expressed their happiness as if someone in their family got engaged."