“I have been waiting for good work and when 35 came my way, I could not let it go. It would have been an injustice had I not taken it up,” says actor Nivetha Thomas, when we meet for an interview at Ramanaidu Studios in Hyderabad. Directed by debutant Nanda Kishore Emani, 35 – Chinna Katha Kaadu (not a small story), releasing in theatres on September 6, is a family drama set in Tirupati.
The last time Nivetha was seen in a Telugu film was in Saakini Daakini in 2022. In 2023, she featured in the Malayalam film Enthada Sajji, marking her return to the language after nine years. This begs the unavoidable question: are good films rare to come her way, across languages? Nivetha considers the question and remarks, “People think I am difficult to please, which is not true. I wholeheartedly enjoy listening to narrations and reading scripts in different genres. There have been many cases when I have come across interesting scripts but after a few discussions, if I felt that they had not shaped up to their potential, I have stepped back so they can proceed with another actor. I am game to work in five or six films each year but I would like all of them to be different.”
At just eight years old, Nivetha debuted as a child actor and since then, she has worked in Malayalam, Telugu, and Tamil films. She acknowledges that fame and the spotlight are not the driving forces behind her choices. An architect and an actor, she ponders if being out of sight translates to the audience not remembering her work enough.
“This thought has crossed my mind,” she says, adding that she believes in maintaining a healthy work relationship and strives to balance even for visibility on social media. “When I do not have a movie update, I do not like to put out images of me just having coffee. People do not need to waste their time looking at me. But I realize that some of this is also needed for visibility. I wish I could do more films at a better pace.”
When the promos of 35 were unveiled, Nivetha was besieged with messages from well-wishers and social media posts. “People told me they are happy to see me in a new film. It moved me to tears. It also made me think that perhaps I have set my standards too high; maybe I should take up more films and learn by making a few mistakes.”
After the release of Brochevarura, the feedback she received from fans made her understand that she had come to be known as an actor who made worthwhile choices. “There were many who told me that if they knew I was in a film, they would consider it worthy of watching. Such trust made me more responsible and also cautious; I wanted everything to be perfect. For Saakini Daakini, I gave my 100% and it took me a while to move on when it did not get its due.”
Nivetha agrees when asked if this is a transition phase. “When I transitioned from being a child actor to a leading lady, I did not think much. It all happened quickly. I was enjoying working and studying.” She says that even today, she thinks of stardom and celebrity status as additional baggage. “I want to transition to a new phase in a way that I can find more interesting work.
.” She adds that she is open to producing films to bankroll interesting scripts, though negotiating distribution and release would be challenging.
35 is set in the temple town of Tirupati. In Nanda Kishore Emani, Nivetha could sense an honest storyteller. She portrays Saraswati, a mother of two young children. “I did not think twice about playing a mother. This is a beautiful character of a woman who has not passed 10th standard and her world revolves around her family.”
She was also impressed by the detailing in the script. “The door handle in Saraswathi’s house is shaped like a veena since she plays the instrument. The colors of her sari, the zari, her hair length, how she is a stickler to practices such as maintaining her distance when she drapes the ‘madi’ sari, everything was in the script. We even discussed if she would let go of her ‘madi’ custom and embrace her son in an emotional scene.”
Nivetha emphasizes that 35 never gets into a preachy zone; it reminded her of the sacrifices made by her mother, a practicing nurse. “When I began acting in the fourth grade, my mom gave up her work to be by my side. She never complained. At that time, I did not know its value.”
35 also reunites Nivetha with Gautami Tadimella, after Papanasam (the Tamil remake of Drishyam, in which Nivetha played Kamal Haasan and Gautami’s daughter). “In 35, Gautami ma’am is a representation of an urban woman. The conversations she and Saraswathi have reflect how the two women, given their different world experiences, talk about aspects such as self-dignity. This time, I was fortunate to have more conversations with Gautami Ma’am, who is as graceful as ever. She never puts down a co-star who is less experienced than her. I also observed the little things she brought into her characterization. For instance, she wore a bulky watch, her own, because she felt that character would not wear a typical slim wristwatch we associate with older women.”
Nivetha and the rest of the cast were coached in the Tirupati Telugu dialect for 35. “We had tuitions at 7am,” she recalls. “We had the help of Prashant who prepared training modules and published a book. We learned phonetics and lexical, understood how the Tirupati dialect is different from that of Chittoor and how people speak it with a mix of Tamil, thanks to the transition crowd. Saraswathi’s brother is a pujari at the Tirupati temple. So all this influences the way she speaks. The audio was recorded in sync sound and speaking the dialect with ease was important.”
As a parting note, Nivetha says 35 is an entertaining film featuring more than 60 children and is bound to put a smile on the audience’s faces. “Given a chance, I would knock on every door and request people to go watch the film in theatres with their families. When you watch something relatable and personal on the big screen, it can be magical.”
