Sruthi Hariharan on The Verdict: The courtroom angle is only one aspect of the film; there’s also…

When the trailer of the Tamil film The Verdict came out, it appeared that it would be a courtroom drama following whether or not Urvi actress Sruthi Hariharan’s character Namrutha murdered her employer, a wealthy US-based widow, Elizabeth Sherman (Suhasini Maniratnam), after the former was made a substantial beneficiary on the latter’s will. Is Namrutha a murderer, or is the real culprit still free while she faces the justice system? That is what it seemed like, what with Varalaxmi Sarathkumar playing Namrutha’s defence lawyer.

Considering that courtroom dramas have done well with audiences across the country in recent times, whether it is Neru in Malayalam, Court in Telugu or Yuddhakaanda Chapter 2 in Kannada, it would be a good time for a film like The Verdict to hit theatres. But then Sruthi clarifies that although the film is called The Verdict, it is not entirely a courtroom drama.

Sruthi Hariharan: The Verdict is a sensible potboiler

“The courtroom angle is only one aspect of the entire film, there’s also a love story, there’s revenge and vengeance and there’s a thriller element to it. I think it’s quite a sensible potboiler,” she says, adding, “It’s a very different film from what we’ve seen before, so I am excited to see how audiences respond to it.”

Sruthi adds that what also appealed to her is that The Verdict has a bunch of strong women characters, which, she describes are all well etched-out. “There are well-written women characters with back stories and reasons as to why they are a part of the plot; they are not just pretty faces. Of course, we do get opportunities to be pretty also; Varalaxmi’s styling will definitely be a talking point,” says Sruthi, who shot for the film in Austin, US, in September last year.

Although Sruthi had a release with 2023’s Head Bush, which was her second film with Daali Dhananjaya after Raate, and is patiently waiting for some of her other completed projects to hit screens, she says that it’s been much longer since Tamil audiences have seen her. “I am excited to be back with this film,” says the actress, who, incidentally, played a younger version of Suhasini in Ambi Ning Vayassaytho.