Working in Shuddhi was like giving a theatre performance: Shashank Purushotham

A theatre artiste, who has enjoyed a successful stint in TV as well, Shashank Purushotham is a well-known face. The actor is all set to play a cop in this week’s release,

Shuddhi

, a movie that he is excited about.
“I play a special crime branch officer in the film and Sidhartha Maadhyamika’s character plays my partner. When we were working on the characterization, we tried to maintain a contrast between our characters, and I decided to play the more serious one,” says Shashank, who adds that one of the producers,

Madesh Bhaskar

, was keen on having him onboard as he was a fan of his work in the TV series, Mahaparva.

For Shashank, working on the film was a lot like working in theatre. “The way Drew (DOP

Andrew Aiello

) shot the film was very different. His idea of shooting was to go to the set and rehearse each scene around 15-20 times, like we would in a play. We would try out different things while rehearsing, and connect with the space in the process. In the meantime, Drew would play around with the camera, then do the lighting and finally shoot it when everything was in place. So, even if my last shot was at the end of the day, I would know all the finer details, such as how my finger would twitch, since I had done it so many times. It was beautiful to work like that,” he says.


Since the movie was captured in sync sound, there was no shouting or screaming on the set, which, says Shashank, was like performing live onstage. “Your emotions and expressions are captured live, which makes a big difference to the performance,” he says.

After 12 years as a theatreperson, Shashank is taking a break from plays, and has also moved on from TV, which he found monotonous. So, what’s next? “My wife and I love travelling, so we plan on doing a lot of that this year. Apart from that, I will begin work on a Tamil film in the next three months or so. I also want to direct in the future,” the actor signs off.