Actress Sunainaa admits she doesn't like playing similar roles

Sunainaa believes that taking ownership of a character is a crucial step for an actor to make the audience believe in a film. Her upcoming release, Regina, is a revenge drama in which a girl goes on a journey to avenge her losses. She speaks of getting into the shoes of the character before shooting began. “I am not a spontaneous actor, who can just snap into the mood of a scene and readily face the camera. I get into the skin of my characters well in advance and stay with that mindset till my last shot.” So then, the dark mindspace of her character, Regina, must have affected her? “It is the reverse, in fact,” she says. “I was going through a bad phase in my life when we began shooting; so, I used my personal pathos for the character. I might not stick to this technique in the future, but right now, it is turning out to be quite effective. I cannot relate to actors who share a joke before the shot, and then, go on to deliver a terrific breakdown scene the next minute. I think they are blessed to be able to pull off such performances.” Sunainaa also relies on music to help her ace a scene. “Music has the power to influence any mood. I pick songs and soundtracks to go with the emotion expected from a scene.” Regina’s director Domin D’Silva followed a similar idea, blasting music from huge speakers during the breaks.

Speaking more about the kind of films she likes, Sunainaa shares, “I enjoy watching many contrasting types of cinema. I enjoy a good masala film with dance numbers. I also enjoy a serious Spanish drama. My approach towards cinema has been quite similar.” Echoing the diversity in her tastes, Sunainaa states that she wants the audience to remember her as an honest, versatile actor. “I love actors like Meryl Streep and Vijay Sethupathi because they cannot be boxed into any kind of roles. I want to be an actor like that. I have been acting since I was a kid and featured in plays; I don’t enjoy playing similar characters.”She reveals that she turned down a couple of scripts which went on to become hits, simply because they didn’t offer her anything new. “My old manager and well-wishers would chide me for refusing such roles, but this was after a phase where I did films that didn’t cater to my needs as an actor. I got frustrated with them; My only priority, currently, is to play roles that excite me and entertain the audience. Who knows, maybe I might play a murderous villain next.”