Sruthi Hariharan on her choice of scripts – Story, character and director are priority, not money

Sruthi Hariharan’s filmography has an interesting mix of routine commercial movies and the more artsy, content-oriented ones. Her personal favourite, of course, being the latter. In fact, her upcoming release, Saramsha, a film about a writer’s conflict with a character he’s been developing. Speaking to Metrosaga during the promotions of the film, Sruthi addressed her top criteria in choosing projects to be a part of.

Sruthi is very clear that for her the story comes first, followed by the character she’d be doing and, of course, who directs it. Saramsha, she says, ticks all three boxes. Money and other finer details follow thereafter. This, she says, is why she has done certain films for very little or no money at all, because she thought those stories deserved to be told and it was important for that project to be made at a certain budget. In cases like that, Sruthi says that it would be wrong for her to insist on a certain fixed remuneration and expect them to finish the film with the rest. It would deprive her of the opportunity of being a part of a good film, she feels.

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During the interaction, Sruthi also spoke about the importance of women in Kannada cinema and the difference that the female gaze can bring to storytelling. The issue right now is that only men are doing all the writing, including the female characters, and as long as no one questions their expertise, they will continue to follow a certain template that they believe to be correct, she says. In the process, they will end up catering to a predominantly male audience. “The day we are able to cater to men and women, the single-screen theatres which are now the domain of male audiences, will have women too in attendance,” Sruthi reckons.

On that note, the actress adds that she actively looks out for opportunities to collaborate with women filmmakers, and that she has already done two short films with such collaborators.