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Anupama: “I didn't want to be the person who dreams of movies & gets nowhere”
When Anupama Parameswaran was younger, she longed for the grace of Raja Ravi Varma’s muses, wishing, quietly, to carry it as her own. For our January-February cover, this dream is actualised as the actor is reimagined as Padmini, the lotus nymph, immortalised on Varma’s canvas. In conversation with the star, we explore the quiet details of a loud life.
Anupama Parameswaran: “I didn’t want to be that person who dreams of the movies and gets nowhere”
As a child, her classmates would hide chalk, pen caps and candy wrappers in her hair, giving her nicknames like ‘theneecha koodu’ (honeycomb) and ‘vaikkol thuru’ (haystack). Which is why Anupama Parameswaran hated her thick, coiled, unruly curls and braided them so tight that her head hurt. But over time, she has learned to embrace her coily texture as an idiosyncratic part of her being. In fact, on set she termed her voluminous locks ‘Vogue hair’.
Anupama Parameswaran: “I didn’t want to be that person who dreams of the movies and gets nowhere”
“Choosing a script has always been difficult for me. What’s written on paper is not what is always made. Often, halfway through a shoot, I realise things aren’t working out, that this is different from what I signed up for. I just tell myself not to give up and give my 100 per cent,” says Anupama Parameswaran about accepting criticism and learning to pivot through her career. An artist’s muse, she slips into character, an homage to one of Raja Ravi Varma’s most recognisable paintings.
Anupama Parameswaran: “I didn’t want to be that person who dreams of the movies and gets nowhere”
Add this to things you didn’t know about Anupama Parameswaran: she has the quiet focus of an athlete who knows exactly where to put their energy. On set, the lights burned hot and a cacophony of voices collided around the actor, but she remained calm at the centre of it. When a heavy wig was brought in for one of the looks and someone reached out to help, she waved them off. Maybe it’s the professionalism that comes with a decade of doing what she loves.
Anupama Parameswaran: “I didn’t want to be that person who dreams of the movies and gets nowhere”
“In Malayalam films, if you have acne on your face or poofy hair, they say, ‘Great, let’s go with it.’ They love candid. But Telugu cinema is not like that. They want cinematic. It’s like life as is versus life as a dream,” articulates Anupama Parameswaran as she offers an explanation for the contrast between the two worlds—gentle but definitive, reminding you that she belongs to both.
Anupama Parameswaran: “I didn’t want to be that person who dreams of the movies and gets nowhere”
“I don’t mind mugging ten pages of dialogue but photoshoots and interviews stress me out,” the actor confesses. Anupama Parameswaran knows the cost of being seen, of being a young woman in a world that’s always watching. Beyond the beauty, the glamour and her young 28 years, she speaks five languages—more than enough words to tell her story.
Anupama Parameswaran: “I didn’t want to be that person who dreams of the movies and gets nowhere”
Anupama Parameswaran knows the cost of being seen, of being a young woman in a world that’s always watching. Beyond the beauty, the glamour and her young 28 years, she speaks five languages—more than enough words to tell her story. The actor opens up to Vogue India on the quiet details of a loud life