Rajisha Vijayan and Priya Varrier share insights on 'Kolla' and their characters

As the name suggests, ‘Kolla’ starring Rajisha Vijayan and Priya Prakash Varrier, is a fun thriller with a bank robbery plot, focusing on situations happening around the two lead female characters.

The directorial venture of Suraj Varma movie has hit the theatres and is garnering positive reviews. Besides the two actresses, the impressive cast includes Vinay Fort, Alencier, Prashant Alexander, Jiyo Baby, Shebin Benson, and Prem Prakash among others.

Ace writer duo Bobby-Sanjay took inspiration from the infamous Chelambara bank robbery but managed to give a fresh touch with the characters ‘Annie’ (Rajisha) and Shilpa (Priya). Here the duo is sharing with the readers the experience of their coming together before the camera, besides their thoughts on the movie.

‘Don’t reveal the robbery plot’
Rajisha: Before the release of the film, we were in a situation where we couldn’t open up about the movie, especially its story and our characters. The instruction from the makers was not to reveal much about the film as it was being made to be an edge-of-the-seat suspense thriller. I’m sure everyone will like the movie. It is not based on any real incident, but much research on the part of the writers had gone into its making.

Priya: Though the film was shot in places like Kottayam, Ettumanur, and Vayala, the story is not limited to any particular locale. We faced a lot of queries when we go to various places as part of the project. Many wanted to know how the two girls are connected with the robbery, or is it they who carry out the heist or whether the duo gets trapped for the crime committed by someone else and like that…

Treading the path of ‘robbers’
Priya: I did ‘Kolla’ before the movies ‘4 Years’ and ‘LIVE’. I was excited to act in it hearing the one-line of the story itself. Besides, it was a fresh subject with two girls playing the lead characters. The offer comes at a time when I was waiting for a good script where I could do full justice to my acting talents. I was choosy as I don’t want to be type-casted, similar to the experience after my first film. It resulted in my taking a break from the industry. While doing outside language movies, I had to put much effort to do the characters. I couldn’t handle the languages with ease. I had to mug up the dialogues on the day before the shooting itself. And I can only do my best in delivering the dialogues from my memory. I stepped into Malayalam movies confidently. I have even rendered a song in this film. I knew beforehand that one of the two main characters is being played by Rajisha. Like outside the screen, we’re good friends in the film as well.

Rajisha: There are only a few thriller films in Malayalam where two girls are featured in the lead roles. I decided to act since the story is by the Bobby-Sanjay team, and many situations in the story caught my imagination.

Action scenes
Priya: Though I can’t term them as pure action, there were many scenes in ‘Kolla’ which posed much physical challenge to us. Both of us suffered injuries during the shooting. But we went ahead with its shooting without such things affecting the schedule.

Rajisha: The two scriptwriters and the one who wrote the story are doctors. The script and the dialogues are by Dr Jasim Jalal and Dr Nelson Joseph. Thus there were many doctors in our set which augured us well after we got the injuries.