These days, actor Gagan Malik who portrayed Prince Siddhartha in ‘Shri Siddhartha Gautama’ movie, has become a household name among netizens because the videos that show his entering into monkhood (for 15 days) in Thailand are abundant in social media. But, when speaking about the characters of movies on Prince Siddhartha or Lord Buddha, we cannot avoid the name Pallavi Subhash who portrayed Princess Yashodhara, wife of Prince Siddhartha, in ‘Bimba Devi hevath Yashodhara’ (‘Bimba Devi alias Yashodhara’), a film by Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne.
Definitely, it was amazing acting by her in the film. For her portrayal of Yashodhara, she was also honoured with a Distinguished Achievement Award at the South Asian Film Arts and Literature Festival (SAFALF) 2018 in Ryde, Sydney. In this article we discuss about her as she has been such an impact not only in ‘Bimba Devi hevath Yashodhara’, but also many Indian movies and teledramas.
Who is Pallavi Subhash?
: Pallavii Subhash Shirke (in full name) was born on June 9, 1984, in Maharashtra. After completing her B.Com., she wanted to pursue law and become an advocate like her grandfather. But due to an incident, her ambition changedwhile she was attending a theatre play, she got an offer from director Kedar Shinde to play a role in his Marathi play ‘Tu Tu Mee Mee’.
Thereafter, she continued to act in various other theatre productions, and also teledramas, advertisements and modeling. She was, first, popular among Marathi tele serials such as ‘Char Divas Sasuche’ (on ETV Marathi) and ‘Adhuri Ek Kahani’ (on Zee Marathi). Then, she entered Hindi tele dramas. Her debut Hindi tele serial was ‘Tumhari Disha’. She was noticed by the director, Ekta Kapoor, in that serial and in 2006 got selected for the next Hindi serial, ‘Karam Apnaa Apnaa’ produced by Balaji Telefilms. In this she played the central role of Gauri, a charming and innocent middle class Bengali Girl. Because of her impressive performance in Hindi tele dramas she was nominated for the Indian Telly Award for Fresh New Face in 2007.
As Rani Dharma
Her landmark in tele drama acting was playing young Emperor Ashoka’s mother Rani Dharma in Hindi Tele serial ‘Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat’ because this, not only, earned her Golden Petal Award for the Best Supporting Actress in 2016, but also, helped her to bag the role of Yashodhara in Prof. Sunil Ariyarathne’s film. In an interview with DNA news web, she recounted this as below:
“My director Prof. Sunil Aryaratna watched it and immediately made up his mind that he would only cast me as Yashodhara.”
There, she further described: “In the beginning when I got a direct call from the production team I thought it was a prank and kept trying to ascertain it was not. Later though I got to know it was real and accepted the project. It felt surreal that I’d been chosen for the title role in an international project. I have always taken my work seriously but the knowledge that it was being watched by filmmakers all over the world has taught me to look at some of earlier work down the 16 years in a new light.”
A booster for Sinhala cinema
Her acting in the ‘Bimba Devi hevath Yashodhara’ not only adds artistic merit for the film, but also promotes Sri Lankan cinema. For instance, after winning the Distinguished Achievement Award at the SAFAL festival 2018 in Sydney, she highly appreciated the film in an interview with a journalist, Yogesh Pawar, of DNA: “It is a huge honour to represent India with this woman-centric film.” At this time she was questioned by the journalist as this: “But why haven’t many in India heard of the film?”
Her answer was: “I don’t think that’s for me to answer. When the film was released in Sri Lanka the international media interviewed director Sunil Ariyaratne and me. But when I came back to Mumbai nobody seemed interested. In the beginning, I felt saddened over how neither my Indian co-star Arpit Chaudhary (who plays Prince Siddhartha) seems to have even registered given how omnipresent the Indian mainstream is. But I feel there is no point in getting embittered. The best way to deal with this was to immerse myself in my work on tv shows and ads.”
Cordial relationship
The relationship between Bollywood artistes and Sri Lankan artistes is also strengthened from her collaboration in the movie. Following is how Pallavi Subhash praised her team in the Yashodhara film:
“Everyone on the set seemed to make a special effort at keeping the vibe positive throughout. I grew to love the locals, their food and culture. They are an extremely knowledgeable, hardworking lot and yet so outgoing and supportive. I still remember the warmth and have become close and good friends with my Sri Lankan co-stars Dineth De Silva, Sangeetha Thedani, Ajith Weerasinghe, Udari Perera, and Kamal Deshapriya and many others in the crew.”
So the Marathi actress’ contribution in the movie has many advantages.
When talking about Pallavi Subhash’s acting life, the Yashodhara film gave her many rewards. It has generated interest among casting directors both internationally and in India. She spoke about this in her interview with DNA:
“I am in talks with several filmmakers and negotiations on the role contours and dates are in the final stages. It is very exciting and I can only thank God for giving me this opportunity.”
Other performances
As she said, thanks to the ‘Bimba Devi hevath Yashodhara’, she could perform a significant role in Rajesh Chavan’s 2018 Marathi film ‘Ghar Hota Menacha’. Then, in 2019, she starred in another Marathi film ‘Miranda House’ directed by Rajendra Talak. After acting in the Sinhala movie, she became the only Marathi actress who worked in not only all south Indian languages but also in Sinhala language.
Among her other language movies include her debut Marathi movie ‘Kunku Zale Vairi’ (2005) where she was nominated for the ‘Best Actress Zee Gaurav Award’; a comedy Marathi film ‘No Problem’ (2005); a Marathi film ‘Sage Soyare’ (2006) where she acted as a lead role; another Marathi film ‘Aaila Re!!’(2006) and a classic Marathi movie ‘Mee Sansar Mandite’ (2008). Next, after seven years of gap she made a comeback to films with three Marathi projects: ‘Asa Mee Ashi Tee opposite Sachit Patil’, ‘Premasutra’ and ‘Dhava Dhava Khun Khun’. She also acted in a Tamil film ‘Om’, and then in a Kannada film ‘Rascal’. In 2014 she appeared in ‘Happy Journey’.
In 2015 she acted in ‘Chakravyuha’ which is an Indian Kannada language film. And in 2016 she made her debut in the Telugu film industry in 2016 with romantic comedy film ‘Naruda Donoruda’.
In this way, Pallavi Subhash is not only a talented actress, but also a huge reward for Sinhala cinema. So, it is our filmmakers’ responsibility to take her contribution for other Sinhala movies as she is much eager to act in another Sinhala movie after acting in ‘Bimba Devi hevath Yashodhara’.