When someone hears of a model making a film debut, one automatically pictures them in uber-chic outfits, playing nothing more than arm candy to the macho hero. But, for Yasmin Ponnappa, the story is quite different. This Bangalore model, whose debut film in Tamil, Aaranya Kaandam, hit the screens last Friday, played a role that was anything but stereotypical. So much so that Yasmin, who’d never thought about films before, is now hoping to do more good cinema.
“I’d never thought of doing films in the first place. Like any model, I’d moved to Mumbai from Bangalore. When the team of Aaranya... was hunting for a heroine, the director Thiagarajan Kumaraja remembered my face from an advertisement that I had been part of,” says Yasmin.
The model-turned-actor says that it was the script that got her to sign up. “I love reading. I’m very selective about what I read and I dislike stories that don’t keep my mind occupied. When the makers of Aaranya... narrated the story, I was drawn to it, not as an actor but as a listener. That did it for me,” says Yasmin.
Talking about her role, she says, “It wasn’t extremely hard. Nothing like what one would have to do in a film like Black Swan, where they’d to learn ballet. But the fact that the director held an intensive 10-day workshop prior to the film helped us get into the character. In fact, the film has been shot differently too. It’s more like world cinema and has even gathered a great response during its screening across the world. I am eager to see how the audience here takes to the film,” she signs off.
