Malayalam cinema star Nimisha Sajayan says the critical appreciation for her 2021 role in "The great Indian kitchen" helped her reach a wider audience and led to work opportunities in the Hindi movie industry.

The Malayalam-Language film, directed by Jeo Baby, became one of the most lauded films during Covid. The movie revolved around how women are stifled in their marriages and are often tied to thankless and backbreaking household chores.

Sajayan played the role of a woman who starts to resist her oppression and learns to seek freedom.

"It (the film) led to more opportunities from the north. Earlier, my work was limited to south audiences, but now it has extended to the north state as well,” Sajayan told PTI in an interview.

The 27-year-old actor, who will be seen playing a forest officer in Richie Mehta's Prime Video series "Poacher", has been praised for her acting in the series by executive producer Alia Bhatt.

Sajayan's other significant roles are in movies such as "Oru Kuprasidha Payyan", "Chola", "Nayattu", "Malik" and "Chithha".

Based on true events, the multilingual series unravels the illegal ivory trade in India from the lens of forest officials and wildlife warriors. In order to get into the skin of the character, Sajayan said she met a forest officer from Kerala to understand her character.

"I met him (official) and I spoke to him for two hours. It's impossible to know a person in two hours so I just asked him about his relationship with his colleagues and his family. I asked him a question. 'How do you feel when you get to know about the poaching cases?' He said, 'Nimisha just imagine there's something that's very close to your heart, in your home and your home gets robbed and it's taken away. How would you feel?' "So, his reply made me understand who the character is, and how emotionally committed he is to the jungle. I think that was my preparation. Just that one question, and I got the character," she added.

Along with Sajayan, "Poacher” will also see Roshan Mathew and Debyeundu Bhattacharya in a prominent role. The series is set to premiere on February 23.

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