Raj B Shetty says he barely had to guide Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye’s Siri in playing Prerana

Siri Ravikumar is quite the live wire in real life, which, interestingly, most of her onscreen characters do not capture. In fact, her next, Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye has her playing a counsellor at a palliative care centre, for which she had to sport a serious demeanour on set. During a recent promotional interview with Film Companion, writer-director-actor Raj B Shetty was asked about brief to her to tone down her energy. Turns out, he barely had to say or do anything to guide her.

Siri’s biggest strength, Raj reckons, is that she has a strong voice. “Siri is probably the artiste that I had to guide the least. I had seen her earlier in Sakutumba Sametha, as well as the as-yet-unreleased Abracadabra, and was keen to collaborate with her at some point,” says Raj, adding that within days of this thought striking him, producer Ramya, who was to play the central character of the film, decided against doing the role. This paved the way for Raj to cast Siri without any hitch.

Siri Ravikumar on Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye: I had no idea about counselling in a hospice until I played Prerana 

The actress’ role in the film, Prerana, is a palliative care counsellor, which required her to be relatively de-glam. Speaking at the trailer launch of the film, Siri had said that getting into the character was not easy, and that she had spent time at a palliative care centre in Bengaluru where she sat through some counselling sessions. Unlike counselling of more day-to-day issues that one tends to be familiar with, speaking to patients who are literally staring death in the eyes. “You can’t tell them that everything’s going to be okay, because it will not and yet, you have to find ways to comfort and care for them in their last moments. That’s tough,” she had said, adding that she’s broken down watching a real-session, and was reminded that such reactions were not allowed.

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