The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : My only passion is films: Navya Nair

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 09, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

My only passion is films: Navya Nair

S.R. Ashok Kumar

Navya Nair

It is five years since Navya Nair stepped into the film world. Today she is a happy woman, thanks to her success. After 30 films, including four in Tamil, Navya got her second Kerala State award.

In Chennai for a visit, Navya Nair talks about her career and profession.

My only passion is films. I like to watch all kinds of them.

I was studying in class ten when I participated in a youth festival in Kerala. I later got a letter from Malayala Manorama seeking acceptance to publish my photograph in their weekly issue. I was happy.

The photo was published on the cover of the issue. Popular director Sibi Malayil saw it and contacted us asking whether I would like to act in films.

My father was against it at that time, but I wanted to take up the offer, as I loved cinema.

I received offers to act in teleserials even earlier. But, my father refused to let me accept them because he felt that when a good film offer came along we would not be able to concentrate on the serials. But, when the real offer came my father did not want me to act in films.

So I called my uncle, director K. Madhu.

He intervened and asked my father to allow me to act. My first film was Istam, with Dilip. It was a super hit. It ran for nearly 175 days.

Only after acting in nearly 25 films did I enter Tamil cinema through Azhagiya Theeye. I was then signed up for Amirdham and later on for Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy.

My latest appearance is in Pasakkiligal. Amirdham is releasing tomorrow.

My next film is going to be T.V. Chandran's Aadum Koothu.

Now I am doing a film directed by Cheran, which is yet to be titled.

The films I accepted are all good. It is difficult to pick and choose one or two from among them. But, I can say that I was happy to receive the Kerala State award for Nandanam in 2002. When it was released people used to call me Balamani, the name of the character I played in the movie. Azhagiye Theeye is another good movie. Chidambarathil Oru Appaswamy was appreciated by the media and the audience. Those who saw a sneak preview of Amirdham told me that I looked exactly like an Iyengar girl.

I got the second Kerala State award for two of my films. Both the award-winning films were different in their own way. Saira is a film about a television reporter. I did the lead role in the movie: that of Saira Ali Hussain.

The other film was Kanne Madanguka, where I played a schoolgirl. I enjoyed the roles and am happy that I got the awards for them.

The awards are a source of inspiration and a bonus for my hard work. All my awards are precious to me.

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