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Manju Warrier on Career Choices and Abandoned Hindi Debut With R Madhavan: 'I Had Also Auditioned for Sacred Games'
As she gears up for the Hindi release of her Malayalam film 'Footage', Manju Warrier talks about her 2.0 phase and why she might go on a break again.
Had streaming executives taken a closer look at south Indian star pre-pandemic, Malayalam film star Manju Warrier would have made her pan-India debut in 2019 with the second season of the Netflix series Sacred Games. If COVID-19 hadn't disrupted shooting schedules across the country, Warrier would have also made her full-fledged Hindi feature debut opposite R Madhavan much earlier. Fate came in between some of Warrier's attempts to blossom out of the Malayalam industry over the years, but the actor says she is now raring to break through.
Her latest Malayam film Footage will be releasing in Hindi on March 7, as Anurag Kashyap has boarded the project as the presenter.
During a chat with The Hollywood Reporter India, Warrier said Footage would be the first step towards reaching out to a wider North Indian audience, despite previous attempts that didn't materialise.
"I had earlier shot one Hindi film with R Madhavan, but COVID-19 complications disrupted the shoot. Maddy got COVID, then he got busy with his film Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2022), and then for some reason, we couldn't resume the shoot. That was a lovely project, but sadly, it was left halfway," she recalls.
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Kashyap, who was also present during the conversation, revealed how he wanted to cast Warrier in the second season of Sacred Games as the RAW officer Kusum Devi Yadav—a role that was eventually played by Amruta Subhash.
"We were trying to get an actor from a different language to play the role. But OTTs were not looking at south Indian markets back then; they were limited to the Hindi belt. I gave them the option of Nayathara, Manju and another actor, but it didn't work out," the filmmaker said, prompting Warrier to quip, "Except for my first film, the only time I ever gave an audition in my career was for Sacred Games!"
Back to Footage; also starring Vishak Nair and Gayathri Ashok, the found-footage mystery marks the directorial debut of Saiju Sreedharan, who worked as an editor on the National Award-winning Maheshinte Prathikaaram (2026) as well as acclaimed titles like Kumbalangi Nights (2019) and Anweshippin Kandethum (2024).
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Warrier said the film aligned with how she wants to mount her career today: daring original movies coupled with surprising tentpole films from other languages. In 2023, she starred opposite Ajith in the heist-thriller Thunivu, and then was featured in last year's action-drama Vettaiyan that was led by Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan.
When pointed out how some of her fans were surprised to see her act in these big-budget, star-led outings, Warrier laughed and said she is hungry to "explore all possibilities" as an artist.
"My Tamil films with Ajith and Rajinikanth sir are also part of the same thought, that I want to try and be part of interesting, different worlds. I am sure that most of my upcoming films have this factor attached to it. I am in that phase of my career where I don't want to hold back. I also have finished L2: Empuraan, the sequel to Lucifer (2019), so it is exciting to do all kinds of films."
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The urge to expand her horizon can be traced back to many of Warrier's earlier professional choices. After making her film debut in 1995 at the age of 16, she soon emerged as one of the prominent leading ladies of the Malayalam film industry. Till 1999, Warrier dominated the screen with as many as 20 films, cementing her status as an actor choosing roles with substance and finding commercial success.
Then, she got married and took a sabbatical from work, only to return 15 years later in glorious form with Rosshan Andrrews's 2014 comedy-drama How Old Are You?
"When I started, I was just a teenager, accompanied by my mother on sets, doing my job with utmost joy. I was happy that the films were doing well. But I am not sure if I used to enjoy the process of acting as much as I do now. During those years, I was too young and naive to understand the craft of it all. The process of filmmaking as a whole is more enjoyable to me today."
"When I got married and stopped working, I had no plans to come back. But then the situation was such that I had to start working again, and acting was the only thing I knew. The audience and the film industry have been extremely kind and receptive towards me. Even now, I am continuing to do films but I don't know for how long. Because I never plan or work with a strategy in mind. I only know how to go with the flow; I am very impulsive," she concludes.