“During those days, I used to get calls from directors who wouldn’t even have a producer or any follow-ups,” Parvathy recalls. Between 20, however, the actor didn’t find much success, except for a few Tamil movies, partly because of her obsession with finding the right script.
A few more Malayalam movies followed, after which she moved to Kannada films where she acted alongside superstar Puneeth Rajkumar. Although the film did poorly at the box office, her second film, Notebook (2006), about three teenage girls, was a super hit and brought her instant recognition. Her success at hosting shows led her to films her first movie, Out of Syllabus, released in 2006. “The film industry is a workplace, and as with any other workplace where there are mechanisms in place to solve problems and ensure a safe environment, we are trying to have the same here too,” Parvathy tells Forbes India.īorn to a lawyer couple, Parvathy studied in Thiruvananthapuram before going on to become a video jockey at Kiran TV, a southern music channel.
Alongside, she has also been taking on two of Malayalam film industry’s thespians, Mohanlal and Mammootty, over issues ranging from misogynist dialogues in movies to the lack of definitive action on expelling another superstar, Dileep, from the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) after he was accused of a conspiracy to rape an actor. Parvathy, who has predominantly been working in the Malayalam film industry for 12 years, was instrumental in forming an association, a first of its kind in India, the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) last year, which aims to make the Malayalam film industry more woman-friendly and address gender issues. Today, the two-time Kerala State Film Award winner for best actress, and a Special Mention awardee in the National Film Awards, hasn’t changed much-she continues to speak her mind, even if it means causing discomfort in certain quarters. Growing up, she would often remind her parents to pay attention to her opinions rather than dismissing them as the ramblings of a teenager. Actor Parvathy has never shied away from speaking her mind.