Anna Ben on Falling Back in Love with Cinema and Life
In an exclusive roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, the actor spoke about overcoming self-doubt and how Kottukaali reignited her love for cinema.
Actor Anna Ben recently shared the story of how she fell out of love with acting, and what it took to bring her back into loving films. In an actors’ roundtable moderated by Anupama Chopra, Editor of The Hollywood Reporter India, the Kottukaali (2024) actor delved into the process of renewing her purpose.
“Acting is definitely not an easy job,” she started, explaining that while the love and adoration that actors receive looks beautiful from the outside, there are many challenges that come along. Ben added, “I'm constantly judging myself on how I’m working with a particular script, or questioning myself on how much I’m growing as a person [and how] that's contributing to my craft.”
She spoke about the many things an actor has to juggle, besides acting, which can certainly feel overwhelming. “You're navigating it on your terms; there’s no one set way to go about it. No one is telling you what to do exactly, so it can be very exhausting,” Ben said. “Sometimes some projects don't fall in the way you want them to, or don't work out [at all], and then you start questioning yourself.” The actor admitted to her habit of over-thinking with a smile.
She continued, “I did a few films that did well but I wasn't satisfied with what I was doing. And then this movie [Kottukaali ] came along, and it was a retreat for me for two months. I was in Madurai, and cut off from everything else. You rarely get those kinds of films.”
Ben recalled how Kumbalangi Nights (2019) was the film that gave her the energy she needed to take up this career. “After that, Kottukaali was the one that reminded me about why I love the craft so much. The process of making that entire film…” she added. “We were a group of 40 people, including the crew. People didn't even know that we were shooting a film; they thought it was a short film that some kids were making because there was no noise!” They simply existed in nature, and the intimacy of the filming process is what made her fall back in love with cinema.
Veteran actor Shabana Azmi caught the tail end of Ben’s point to clarify whether it made her fall in love in general, or with cinema in particular!
Ben laughed as she admitted it spanned everything. “I fell in love with movies and then... I just became happy,” she said.