The Swedish actress Elli AvrRam, who has currently made Mumbai her home, comes from a family of creative people. Her Greek father, Jannis Avramidis, is a musician who is now settled in Sweden. Her Swedish mother, Maria Granlund, is an actress who played a part in Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny And Alexander. On asking her how she discovered her creative bug, she smiles, “I was around five years old when I first saw a Bollywood song on Swedish television. I suddenly see this song where all these beautiful girls are dancing, they’re wearing these colourful clothes. There was just so much life in them.
In their expressions. In their dance moves. It was love at first sight for me.” Watching Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas further enticed her to Bollywood and its maximal style of telling stories. She shares, “After watching Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit in Devdas, I was like, yehi karna hai mujhe life mein, I want to become like them. Now I just need to figure out how.”
Elli, like every other outsider who comes to Mumbai with big Bollywood dreams, has had her share of ups and downs. She started out by working at a jewellery store in Sweden, where she started saving up to come to Mumbai. Like any concerned parent, her dad had objections to her plans. He couldn’t fathom how a young girl would survive in the film industry without enough money and connections. But it was Elli’s tenacity that persuaded her father that she could do it. Today, after sharing screen space with legends like Amitabh Bachchan and Neena Gupta in her last release, - GoodBye (2022), and a dance number with Aamir Khan in Koi Jaane Na (2021), her father is one of her many fans who googles everything penned down about his daughter
She speaks about how her debut film, Mickey Virus (2013), came her way. She recalls how she had done a photoshoot that eventually led to her getting recommended for the film, which was also Maniesh Paul’s debut. She adds, “I’ve come here for acting, and I’m serious about it. I got a call from a photographer, who told me that there is this film, I think you should send your portfolio and go for the audition. So I said, of course, I’d love to. That’s when I contacted Saurabh Verma, my first director. I was called for the audition. And I did very well in the audition.” Speaking of the hindrances she’s faced, she speaks about the language barrier, which was a roadblock for her in the initial stage. So vivid is her experience, that she has some sound advice for an outsider, who might lose heart when faced with these obstacles.” Says she, “Of course, language was a barrier. I mean, there was a hardcore accent back then, and I didn’t know Hindi.
You have to be confident. You have to be mentally strong, and fierce. You simply need to practise your craft and be patient. Because if you’re honest about your work, you will end up attracting people who will also acknowledge it. You have to believe in yourself.” She has worked with stalwarts such as Amitabh Bachchan in Goodbye and Dhanush in Naane Varuvean (2022) and values her learnings from them. “I love the fact that all of these actors are so true towards their work.” She adds, “And they are all true artistes - humble and grounded. And so professional.”
Having done films like Mickey Virus, Naam Shabana (2017), Malang (2020) and Goodbye (2022), she says, a femaleoriented film would be extremely challenging and exciting for her now. “Exploring a genre like that would be something new for me. There are a lot of stories out there where the heroine becomes the crux of the story,” she reflects.
She has a strong affinity for South Indian languages, and after finding some success with Paris, Paris (2021, Tamil) and Butterfly, (2021, Kannada), both of which are remakes of Kangana Ranaut’s Queen (2014), as well as Naane Varuvean, she is eager to work on more South Indian projects. She also has the action-packed Ganapath in Bollywood, starring Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon.
She concludes by saying, “Right now the industry has grown in such a way that they don’t care about your nationality. They’re more interested in your capabilities as an actor. I’m loving that. That I’m getting to do so much more now than just be a pretty face.”
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