Sandhya Shetty plays strong cop role in Priyadarshan's Corona Papers

Sandhya Shetty has had several firsts coming her way recently. Her first OTT venture, Dharavi Bank, released recently and now she is debuting in Malayalam, with a Priyadarshan thriller, titled Corona Papers.

“I don’t think I could have asked for a bigger, better film and director to make my Malayalam debut. Interestingly, I worked with Suneil Shetty in my OTT release and now with Priyadarshan, and they have earlier delivered hits together, so I look up to them,” says Sandhya, who is playing a Kerala cop in the movie. The actress, who is a Commonwealth gold medallist in karate, had earlier worked with Priyadarshan in Nimir, the Tamil remake of Maheshinte Prathikaaram.

“When you are an actor there are no language barriers, and this role, which is a prominent part of the film, felt very interesting to me as I had to learn the language and dialogues. The character of a woman cop feels very empowering and my martial arts training help tilt the balance in my favour in terms of getting the role, because the team wanted someone who looked strong and could feel and be the character,” she says, without revealing much of the story.

Sandhya says she has been following Malayalam content for some time and finds the storylines and actors interesting and natural. “Thanks to OTT and subtitling, people can easily watch content in any language and Malayalam definitely has a dedicated following. Also director Basil Joseph winning at the Asian Academy Awards says something about the quality of Malayalam content,” she says.

Mumbai-based Sandhya, who now speaks “kurachu kurachu” Malayalam, is all praise for Kochi and the working style of the industry. “I’ve been made to feel very welcome and felt so much positive energy.. And my co-actors, Shane Nigam, Gayathrie Shankar and Shine Tom Chacko, have been very supportive. I am looking forward to doing more Malayalam films,” she says.