Abitha Venkat on Zee5's Oru Kodai Murder Mystery; I kept asking about my character to the director: Exclusive

Vishal Venkat's Oru Kodai Murder Mystery, which was dropped on Zee5 a few weeks ago, stood out for the unusual screenplay it relied on to solve a murder mystery. A bunch of school students setting out to find details behind the spine-chilling murder of their classmate forms the crux of the web series.

Abitha Venkat, who played a pivotal character in the eight-episode project, garnered praise for her role which involves unforeseen twists and turns. In a chat with OTTplay, the actress opens up about bagging the notable role, the experiences she gained while working for the series and approaching an unusual character.

Quite grateful for the appreciation that is coming her way from different quarters, she finds the director's compliment the most memorable among all. She begins, "We wrapped up the entire shooting in a span of 35 days in Kodaikanal. Director Vishal is someone who expects all of us to deliver natural performance. Hence, an appreciation from him was a huge boost."

The young actress recollects that she attended multiple auditions before coming on board. "I received the bound script and finished reading it in a day as I'm a huge fan of the thriller genre. Later, I had to undergo look tests as a few of us had to appear as school students," she says.

It was the acting workshop which helped her improvise her character which has multiple shades and unpredictable behaviour. The artists, which primarily involved youngsters, underwent the training and were asked to react to various scenarios. Abitha reminisces that the training helped everyone to gel well with each other.

"I had a satisfactory learning experience which pushed me out of my comfort zone. Moreover, the role I play has varied scope to keep viewers guessing. I kept reminding myself that I am playing a school student. At the same time, I had to ensure that my body language doesn't give away any clues to viewers," she says.

According to her, Abirami, who is perhaps the senior most among the actors in the series, was of utmost help in helping her and others feel comfortable. Though they had only two scenes together, her down to earth nature and friendly manner inspired her to give her the best for her character.

Abitha reveals one of the ways she gets into the skin of the characters she plays is by forming an imaginative story in mind which helps her understand and connect more with the roles. "I generally keep asking about my characters to the directors or writers. I always love to know if the characters have any backstory. This is helpful to understand why the character behaves in a certain way in different situations," she says.

Though she has acted in Kamali From Nadukkaveri, C/O Kaadhal and Akash Vaani in notable roles, Oru Kodai Murder Mystery, she notes, provided her a comparatively bigger scope to explore acting. Abitha is elated that the characters in all these projects have been different in many ways.

Abitha, who is currently working in a Telugu film and a web series, is excited about working in a Tamil movie which has her sharing screen space with Sathyaraj. Going gaga over the experience of working with the veteran actor, she says, "You have to see it to believe how grounded an actor he is. I was surprised when he invited me to join him to learn the nuances of a scene. He encouraged me a lot and appreciated my performance." 

Though she confesses that she is not at liberty to reveal more about the thriller flick and other forthcoming projects, the actress says she has pinned high hopes on them.