Chaithra J Achar on Toby: I had ample freedom to experiment with my role on this film

Chaithra Achar has been friends with actor-filmmaker Raj B Shetty since they met on the set of her debut film Mahira. They subsequently collaborated on Raj’s 2021 film Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana, when she sang the popular Sojugada Soojumalige (Maadeva) song. Toby, which releases in theatres on August 25, marks their first onscreen collaboration since Mahira.

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Chaithra plays Jenny, a character who lives with Raj’s Toby – it’s a relationship that the actress does not want to define before the film hits theatres. Jenny could be Toby’s sister or daughter or someone else altogether, but that is something she wants audiences to find out in theatres. In fact, for the longest time, she had not even revealed the name of her character, until Raj recently gave her the go-ahead.

In April this year, when OTTplay had reached out to Chaithra, she had spoken about a film that she was extremely excited to be a part of, which, as we now know is Toby. “As an actor, it is the kind of film that one takes immense pride in in being a part of. The role is as pivotal as that of the leading man; I couldn’t have asked for something better,” she had said.

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Neck-deep in the promotions of the film now, Chaithra recently told a Kannada daily that the beauty of working on Toby was that her comfort level with the team, especially Raj, helped, but that also meant that every time she chose to experiment or improvise on the role, she was given the leeway to do so. The actress says that she was very comfortable on the set of Toby, where she could make mistakes without fear of reprehension. “No one on this set was judgemental, so I knew that I could experiment with the portrayal of my role,” she said. But what made her job easy, she adds, was that Raj and his team had a clear vision of how Jenny should be, which will be out for all to see next Friday, when the film opens in theatres.