Actress Malavika Mohanan, who has worked on some really interesting projects in the Malayalam film industry and will be soon seen in Majid Majidi’s Beyond the Clouds opposite Ishaan Khatter, was perhaps the first choice for a web series on Netflix.
“I am getting lots of offers for web series. I was offered India’s first Netflix series Sacred Games. I wanted to do couple of films before I move on to do a web series,” says Malavika.
Though she agrees that web series are the future, the actress has different plans for herself. “I am a huge fan of web series, but I want to get established in films, before I venture into web series. This creates confusion in audiences’ mind as to what am I upto. So once I have a name I can do anything,” says the Pattam Pole actress.
According to sources, Malavika was offered the role that is now played by Radhika Apte, in the Netflix series Sacred Games. Based on Vikram Chandra’s 2006 thriller novel, apart from Radhika the series stars Bollywood biggies Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. It is scheduled to premiere on July 6.
Two other actress’ Kangana Ranaut and Deepika Padukone had also auditioned for the same role that Malavika is playing in Beyond…. To this the actress clears that she hasn’t replaced Deepika in the film.
“I believe Deepika was never signed for the film. She just did a look test, so nobody had actually signed it. One can’t say I replaced them, but they definitely were contending for it,” she says.
The actress shares, when she got a call from casting director Honey Trehan she was told to not have high hopes.
“Honey called me and told me that the film is a Majid Majidi project. I was also told to not have high hopes since other actresses are competing for the role. After this, I did a look test and four days later, I was on board,” she smiles.
Iranian filmmaker Majidi’s maiden India-set project Beyond The Clouds will hit the screens on April 20.
