Adoor is very particular that his actors belong to the region. He believes that only if they know the culture and language do they become rooted to the soil. So, when he chose Nandita Das to play a Malayali girl in a village in Kuttanad, he was opting for a non-Malayali for the first time.
"It is an honour," Nandita said. "He told me previously he had only Tanvi Azmi, a non-Malayali, in Vidheyan but then he wanted a Kannada face in the film. It is an experience acting in an Adoor film," she added.
"It is her pan-Indian earthy look that attracted me," Adoor explained. "As you know, chocolate faces do not fit in this story. Because of her Oriya-Gujarati parentage, she looks like a Malayali in skin texture and bone structure.
"I have known her for a long time, and she was keen to work with me," continued the master filmmaker. "so, I decided to cast her as Kamakshi in Nitya Kanyaka. I felt she would fit in perfectly and she has also done a very good job. I feel she is one actress who can be an Oriya, Bengali, Malayali, Tamil and also Marathi."
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