Exclusive! Ragini Dwivedi is a single mother on a mission in Kannada-Malayalam bilingual Sheela

Ragini Dwivedi is returning to Malayalam cinema with a Malayalam-Kannada bilingual called Sheela. Directed by Balu Narayanan, the film is a thriller in which she plays the title character. “Sheela is my return to Malayalam cinema after Face 2 Face. I play the title role, which is an interesting interstate character, who speaks both Kannada and Malayalam, and then has to face some very difficult situations after the death of her husband, which is what brings her to Kerala in the first place. It’s a suspense-revenge thriller. The first half is nice, with some glamour too, but the second half is raw and gory,” says Ragini, who has been shooting most scenes of the film twice over for the Kannada and Malayalam versions respectively.

But why has she chosen to do a relatively smaller film? “Work brings more work. I can’t sit around at home and wait for the biggest of films to happen. And when there are interesting scripts like this, wherein I am playing the female lead, then why not? Also, most filmmakers in Mollywood make quality content, so it made sense to be a part of this project,” says Ragini, adding, “Sheela is a single mom, and the film does not have a romantic angle or songs. The narrative follows her journey to Kerala, when she finds out about some ancestral property owned by her late husband. How her attempts to sell it are sabotaged and the trials and tribulations she faces along the way forms the rest of the story.”

Sheela, she says, will have some interesting names on the crew, like, for instance, Drishyam fame Anil Johnson for the music. The cast also includes Riyaz Khan, who plays a police officer, as well as Sunil Sukhada, Vincent Alappat, Pradosh Mohan, Muhammad Irfan, etc.

The film, she adds, will be shot in a single schedule of about 30-32 days, of which Ragini will be a part of most of it. “I am here till December 30 and am hoping to finish the film, so that I start having releases in 2022. There’s something interesting happening in Tamil also, but I am also looking at spending the first two weeks of January in Mumbai to sign a couple of deals,” she adds.