Exclusive | Aachar & Co.: Sonu Venugopal talks her character, Anant Nag films & more
The popular stand-up comic, content creator and actor talks about her role in the upcoming film and more in this exclusive conversation with OTTplay
Jul 24, 2023
Sonu Venugopal
Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy's film Aachar & Co. brims with vibrant and exciting characters that one is likely to also find highly relatable. The film, as the trailer and other promotional material suggest, promises to be a throwback to simpler times in the lives of Bengalureans as its narrative attempts to trace the many different dreams and pursuits of a large dysfunctional family. Of course, the drama is entirely underlined with humour and wit and if someone as funny and creative as Sonu Venugopal is part of the cast, one can probably rest assured that the 'entertainment quotient' in the film is quite high.
"I play the neighbour of Aachar & Co. and I can best describe as this quintessential character that you are likely to have seen in an Anant Nag film," says Sonu Venugopal, speaking about her character with OTTplay. Funnily, the name 'Anant Nag' crops up multiple times while discussing the film with the team members of 'Aachar & Co.', with both Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy and Sonu Venugopal gleefully sharing that they grew up admiring the veteran actor's cinema.
"You always had these quirky characters in Anant Nag, who normally played the neighbours and had their own personality, their own thing going on. And very interestingly, they always had this "I am not too good, nor am I too bad" kind of vibe about them - in essence, these were slightly grey characters. And that's exactly what I liked about the character I play in Aachar & Co. I am not along either in this space because there are two other lovely ladies and together we are known as the BBCs - Bhagirathi, Bharathi and Chandravathi. I play Chandravathi, the new entrant to this group. She's cooler, younger," adds Sonu Venugopal.
But all the jokes and the grey personalities aside, the popular content creator and stand-up comic believes that Aachar & Co. captures the story of every common Bengalurean. "The film is not larger-than-life, and nor are the characters. They are what you see around your house, around your family, but at the same time, it (the film) is also about each individual's journey to achieve something in life. It could be that the person you are watching on screen is the person sitting next to you, it is that relatable. It's also a story of an imperfect family and in fact, all our families are. It does not talk about that ideal family that we have seen in films - that aadarshvadi appa and that very paapa amma - and this film is not that. It's a real film - the characters feel real, the story feels real," adds Sonu Venugopal.
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