We needed police help to shoot at TP’s home

For Devi Ajith, working for Moidu Thazhathu’s T P 51, the film on the slain party leader T P Chandrasekharan, has been an emotional experience, not just a film shoot. “I play Rema, T P’s wife in the film. When I was first offered this role, I did not know whether I wanted to take it up. It was my father who said I should do it, as the family has gone through a lot.That gave me the courage and I have no regrets about it,” she says.
Devi plays two ages of Rema in the film, their college days where the couple met, and during the time of the murder. “Rema’s character doesn’t talk much during her college days. Rema got emotional throughout the shoot of their pennukaanal and wedding scene, where I wore a sari of the same colour as she did. And her son told me, ‘you look just like my mother did during her college days’. She and her son have been with us throughout the shoot and I feel I have become part of their family now. I want to do this film for them, not for the money and not for any political allegiance. I have no politics,” she says.
The film was shot in real life locations where TP lived, in and around Onchiyam. “During the course of the shoot, we were lavished with love by the people of Onchiyam. They would bring homemade food to the set, kappa and fish curry etc. Comrades would visit us and greet us,” she recalls. Owing to its controversial content, the film faced several hurdles during the making but Devi is unpeturbed. “We had to avail of police protection during the shoot at their ancestral home in Onchiyam. Hopefully, I myself won’t be a victim of 51 cuts! But if anything happens to me because oof this movie, let it.” The film is set to release around March-April.
Meanwhile, Devi Ajith also has Daffedar coming up where she plays Kalabhavan Mani’s wife. Work for Veyil Thinnunna Pakshi, an offbeat movie, where she plays a sadist Anglo Indian lady, will start in May. “Deepesh’s Ankuram will see me playing a major character. It is a children’s film, about a little boy and a cat. In Mariam Mukku, I play a fisherwoman named Kathrina. I do comedy in it, something I’ve never done before. I have only a few scenes in Mili, but it’s a beautiful role. My character is that of a dignified and classy lady, again something I’ve not done before,” she signs off.