Akshara Hassan has played the role of a confused teenager in the upcoming movie 'Achcham Madam Naanam Payirppu’. The trailer features her character struggling with her sexuality and the changes her body is undergoing. She has been forced into the “good girl” image trap and doesn’t know how to come out of it.
Written and directed by Raja Ramamurthy, the movie shines a light on the importance of encouraging a sex-positive culture both at home and in society. With the movie set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video this week, Akshara opened up about growing up in a positive and free environment.
She said, “I come from a very open-minded family, who let us be who we are. Our parents kept the door open for us to express what we are feeling and helped us understand what we can do and what we shouldn’t do for our own benefit. I know it sounds a bit selfish but at the end of the day, we need to be a bit careful about ourselves, keeping our safety in mind. We were rooted at the same time, and kept our values and ethics intact. It was very easy to talk to my parents and family about a lot of things. That way it was a bit different because we were exposed to people who were not allowed to have an open discussion with their families. So it made us value what we had.”
When asked if she were able to relate to the character, Akshara said, “Although the character is very different from who I am, I connected to it at a certain level, trying to understand who I can be and what I can be. Even though there are certain expectations of what an ideal girl should be, I was able to be myself, by still being the same good person with those qualities and growing and evolving with time and trying to be the best I can be.”
She added, “My sister (Shruti Haasan) and I were fortunate enough to have our parents say, from a very young age, that ‘both of you have it in you.’ And it’s very important for any child to hear that ‘you have it in you to stand on your own feet.’ So it was very organic when I took off on my own. At any point, if we had a doubt of any sort, we knew we can always call back home and (discuss) this is the deal. How? why? and why not? That differently played a very important role for both me and my sister.”
