The voice is soft, hushed. Esther Anil is at a study hall of her Mumbai hostel, she can’t speak just then. Like a disciplined student, Esther takes the call at a later time, when she is allowed to do so. Esther has just joined college in Mumbai, and chosen to do a degree in Economics, Commerce and Sociology (and would probably add more if she had a choice, one reckons). You have to shake off this picture of a studious, disciplined young person to recall that Esther is an actor, has been one for years, and has just had her first release as an adult female lead in Shaji N Karun’s Olu.
“He (Shaji) had called us when we were at an airport one day, I remember. When we went to see him, he spoke about Olu. There was no audition, he just had to see me,” says Esther in all seriousness. Study time is over, but this young woman still sounds prim and proper. “It’s just habit. I have been working with people older than me for years now and it must have rubbed off on me. It is not that I am trying to act mature,” she says.
She is 18 now, and it’s been six years since she played her most famous character in Drishyam. She played daughter to Meena and Mohanlal and played along with the family in creating an alibi during a crime investigation. Esther reprised the role in the Telugu and the Tamil versions. She played the daughter of Kamal Haasan in the Tamil version, Paapanasam. “I was told Kamal Haasan would have mood swings and I should be very careful. But it was all cool. On the first days, we had an ice-breaking session when everyone was made to sing. I sang 'Aayiram Kannumayi'. For the next two days Kamal uncle was giving me music lessons and I realised just how bad I must have sung,” she laughs softly.
Afterwards, she had a stint in television, hosting a children’s show. She was not too comfortable with the idea, finding it difficult to speak on a stage. But eventually it turned out to be a good experience. “It also let people know that I am not a child anymore and some suggested that I could now do heroine roles.”
As a person she is reserved, she says. But when she gets close to someone, she’d ‘be on their head’. Coincidentally, her roles in movies too are often subdued. Olu has her playing a magical creature, torn between life and death, and living under a lake, entwined. “Not a single shot was underwater (except once when I am thrown into it), it was all CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). The lines were not hard to speak under Shaji sir’s training. But acting like you are underwater when you really are not is tough. My movements should be slow, my speech can’t be hurried, there’d be a fan pointed at me and pipes were wound around my body. I should stay like that from morning to evening,” Esther says.
Esther on the sets of Olu
She had not thought about it being her first role as an adult lead. But then, there was the fear of working under an acclaimed filmmaker like Shaji N Karun, a man who has won national and international recognition. The movie has been one of the 28 in the running for the Oscar entry from India this year. “I was skeptical about doing the movie (out of fear). Everyone who is working in the movie – the technicians and everyone – are so experienced. I have only a few years with me. But then I realised it’d be something I regret all my life if I didn’t take the chance to act in Shaji N Karun’s movie,” she says.
There is also a Tamil movie that’s been half shot. “It’s called Minmini. And then a Telugu film called Johar," she says. But Esther can’t risk taking too many leaves at her college, they are pretty strict about attendance, she says.
Tamil has not been so hard to speak, she has learnt it watching Tamil cartoons. Telugu was a little tough, but otherwise, the shift to other language industries is not so hard for her.
The next in Malayalam is Santosh Sivan’s Jack and Jill. Manju Warrier and Kalidas play the leads. Esther has the role of the villain’s daughter, she says.
Her little brother Eric is also acting these days, but she doesn’t take the role of a mentor for him. “He knows enough to teach me instead! But we don’t really talk of our movies or even ask opinions.”
Even so, she never fails to post promos of her brother’s films. Esther is pretty active on Instagram. “I like photography, and I like to walk. I just take photos and keep them with me. I write too but only share it with some friends,” she says.