Actor Mahima Nambiar is expanding her career across South Indian cinema with a clear preference: she does not want to repeat the same kind of role.
After making her mark in Tamil and Malayalam films, Mahima is now preparing for her Telugu debut with Comrade Kalyan. The film stars Sree Vishnu in the lead and is directed by Janakiram Marella. Venkata Krishna and Sitha Krishna Karnati are producing the project, which is scheduled to release on October 9.
Mahima, who recently appeared in Mandaadi, says the decision to take on Comrade Kalyan was driven by the opportunity to play a different character and challenge herself as an actor.
Mahima Nambiar’s Telugu debut comes after a long wait
Interestingly, Comrade Kalyan is not the first Telugu project Mahima was expected to do with Sree Vishnu.
She recalled that she was supposed to make her Telugu debut with him much earlier. The team had even completed a photoshoot and was preparing to begin filming when the COVID-19 pandemic brought the industry to a halt.
“When work resumed, the dynamics changed, and they chose another actor,” Mahima said.
Her Telugu debut eventually came back around when director Janakiram approached her after watching some of her earlier Tamil and Malayalam films.
According to Mahima, she immediately connected with the story because of its combination of entertainment and humour.
“I am confident that this is the best film to debut in Telugu,” she said.
Working with Sree Vishnu pushed Mahima out of her comfort zone
Mahima also spoke about her experience working opposite Sree Vishnu.
She described the actor as spontaneous, explaining that he sometimes improvises or changes dialogue while filming. For Mahima, that unpredictability became a challenge that required her to remain completely focused on the scene.
“He is a spontaneous actor, and that is challenging for me,” she said.
Mahima added that she had to pay close attention to Sree Vishnu’s performance so that she could respond naturally to his timing.
At the same time, she praised his personality on set, describing him as an extrovert who helped make her comfortable during filming.
For Mahima, working with actors who improvise can ultimately be beneficial because it forces performers to stay present rather than simply rely on rehearsed exchanges.
Why Mahima Nambiar chooses unconventional roles
Mahima says she has deliberately avoided limiting herself to conventional heroine parts.
She revealed that Mandaadi and Comrade Kalyan were signed around the same period, but the projects offered substantially different characters and stories.
“I planned my year in such a way that I wanted to do one film in each language,” she said.
Her filmography has already included characters that move beyond the stereotypical heroine template. She has played a mother and characters with negative shades, among other roles.
“I never wanted to do typical heroine roles,” Mahima said, explaining that she wants her choices to challenge her as a performer.
In Comrade Kalyan, she plays a fun yet mature character who is from Odisha and settled in Andhra. The role also required her to deliver most of her dialogue in Telugu.
Learning Telugu while working across languages
Mahima’s career is increasingly taking her into different South Indian film industries, with projects in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada.
She says language has not become a major barrier because she has already had considerable experience adapting to different linguistic environments.
Malayalam is her native language, while Tamil became familiar to her after beginning her career in Tamil cinema. She eventually learned to read and write Tamil as well.
Her approach to Telugu has been more practical.
For Comrade Kalyan, Mahima asked the director to send voice notes of her dialogues so that she could repeatedly listen to them and work on her pronunciation and modulation.
“I listen to them like music and work on the modulation,” she explained.
She also described the simultaneous experience of working in Telugu and Kannada as occasionally confusing, particularly when she was moving between productions.
Mahima Nambiar on Telugu cinema and female-led films
Mahima also addressed the common perception that Malayalam and Tamil cinema tend to be more realistic while Telugu films are predominantly commercial.
She pointed out that Comrade Kalyan itself has a realistic element despite being designed as an entertaining Telugu film.
According to the actor, commercial cinema and realism do not necessarily have to exist as opposites. She believes cinema is ultimately a form of entertainment and that different audiences can appreciate different kinds of storytelling.
Mahima also highlighted the importance of female-led films and cited Anushka Shetty’s Arundhati as an example of a heroine-centric film with a strong commercial identity.
She argued that audiences also have a role to play in supporting women-led projects by turning up in theatres.
For an actor to carry a female-centric film, Mahima believes a certain level of screen presence and star appeal can be important.
Why Mahima’s name changed from Gopika
Mahima Nambiar’s screen name has an interesting origin.
She revealed that her birth name is Gopika and that the name Mahima was suggested during her first Tamil film.
According to the actor, director Prabhu Solomon felt that Gopika did not suit her and suggested Mahima based on numerology.
She subsequently added Nambiar as her surname.
“I had no idea that my name would be changed. It was my debut film, everything was new to me, and I just said okay,” she recalled.
Why Mahima Nambiar continues to live in Kasaragod
Despite working across several major South Indian film industries, Mahima continues to live in Kasaragod.
She says she prefers having her own space and does not particularly enjoy excessive social interaction. Her pets are also an important part of the reason she enjoys her life away from the larger cities.
Travelling for work does not bother her either. Even for Malayalam productions, she has travelled between her hometown and Kochi.
Chennai is another city that has a special place in her life because she has spent considerable time there while working on Tamil films.
“I have spent more time in Chennai, and it is very close to me because I have done more Tamil films than films in any other language,” she said.
Mahima Nambiar wants to explore every kind of role
With work now taking her across four South Indian industries, Mahima appears determined to keep her career varied.
Rather than attaching herself to one particular genre or image, she wants to continue choosing characters that offer something different.
“I am willing to explore all kinds of roles and not limit myself to one particular genre,” Mahima said.
Her Telugu debut with Comrade Kalyan therefore represents more than an expansion into another language. It also fits the approach she has taken throughout her career: choosing roles that give her something new to learn and perform.
