Mumbai: Jacques Audiard’s French drama “Dheepan” has received rave reviews at various film festivals across the globe, but actress Kalieaswari says it will be sad if the film doesn’t a get a release in India.
Featuring former Tamil Tiger child soldier, Antonythasan Jesuthasan in the lead role, the film tells the story of three Tamil refugees who flee the civil war-ravaged Sri Lanka and come to France, in the hope of reconstructing their lives.
“I wasn’t thinking about whether there’ll be a problem, will it be allowed screen, how will people receive it, nothing.
“Even now I am not sure if it’s going to have an Indian release. If it will not be released, it will be sad but it won’t affect me,” Kalieaswari told PTI on the sidelines of 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.
The Chennai-based theatre artiste plays one of the Tamil refugees in the film and says she wasn’t apprehensive, despite it’s subject, which might invite controversies.
“All those things are there as layers around you, but when you’re working, it is only you, the actor. If people see the film and appreciate it, I will be more happy but if it doesn’t happen, it’s okay. I don’t act only for the recognition.”
“Dheepan” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
Kalieaswari, however, was not sure about auditioning for the film when its casting director came to Chennai.
“I was in two minds initially. But the audition was such a life-changing experience, I decided that I want to work with the director, whose name I couldn’t even pronounce back then.”
Kalieaswari, took “time to adapt” to working in films and is now already onto a Tamil movie.
The actress is open to do Bollywood films too and says her love for actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is just like her admiration for superstar Shah Rukh Khan- “It has been there ever since.”