Minnal Murali's Tovino Thomas: ‘I will not be a part of Hollywood, Bollywood or any other ‘wood’ just to work in another industry’

Actor Tovino Thomas with director Aashiq Abu.

Tovino Thomas was already an established name in Malayalam cinema, having done movies such as ABCD, 7^th Day and Ennu Ninte Moideen. But it was last year’s superhero film Minnal Murali (MM) that got even the non-Malayalis taking notice.

His first release after MM is director Aashiq Abu's Naaradan, in which he plays a news anchor who undergoes a transformation to become a ruthless media personality. Edited excerpts from a conversation with Tovino:

In 'Naaradan', you are playing an intense character who goes through a personal journey of transformation. Was that draining for you?

It was a stressful time until we started the shoot of the movie. My character evolves into something else after a certain period of time in this movie. He is on a power trip. The transformation was very challenging and interesting at the same time.

'Naaradan' addresses the issue of newsrooms constantly chasing TRPs for their benefit. Is the film taking a stand?

We are not stating anything. We are only trying to provoke a thought. I work in the film industry where there is constant healthy competition. To get ahead of competition, we try to make our content interesting and add fiction to facts. It’s not the same for the media. They also face competition and have deadline pressures, but they don’t have the liberty to include fiction in their stories. That’s the major difference between movies and news. Both are performances but one can be fictional, the other cannot.

News channels have a lot of power as they can reach out to many people at the same time. I grew up watching news on Doordarshan, and I was told I could blindly believe the news. But in today’s time of 24/7 news and so many channels, I have to watch, analyse and come to a conclusion, and even that conclusion may not be true; it can be manipulated. It’s not about who breaks the news first, but who comes up with credible news that matters.

This is your first release after 'MM' which was such a big hit. Are you nervous about the reaction?

Firstly, they both are very different kind of movies. The targeted audience is also very different. That said, MM was a very good movie in that genre and Naaradan is a very good movie in this genre. MM was more of an entertainer whereas this is an entertainer but I believe it will also make an impact. I don’t know if everyone who watched MM would like to watch this movie because children also watched it. With Naaradan, I am expecting serious film lovers and the common man who watches TV news and who is curious to know what happens behind the camera.

Do you feel the pressure to deliver, especially after the success of 'MM'?

Definitely. A lot more people are waiting for my movies post MM, especially because a lot of non-Malayalis have also watched the movie. It is definitely a responsibility when you are growing and your audience is growing. If I do something wrong and disappoint them, they will react differently. If I am the face of a movie, I cannot run away from the responsibility.

Tovino Thomas (left) and 'Naaradan' director Aashiq Abu.

'Kala' was your first film as a producer. What kind of content do you want to produce?

I don’t want to be a full-time producer. I produce movies out of my love for cinema, not for profit. I cannot do that for long or else I will go bankrupt! (laughs)

I want to do experimental films or those that no one wants to produce. Kala was something like that. I don’t want my concentration to be applied anywhere else but acting. However, if I find an amazing script which nobody else is willing to produce, I will be interested in that. For that, I am building a team so they can do the execution. I don’t want to invest my time in the execution. That is not my area.

You couldn’t make your Hindi film debut with 'Laal Singh Chaddha', but are you open to projects from Bollywood?

Only if that character is suitable for me and only if I’m the most suitable one for that character. I will not be a part of Hollywood or Bollywood or any other ‘wood’ just for the sake of working in another industry. If something really nice comes up, I will try not to miss that. The character from Laal Singh Chaddha was suitable for me and I was convinced about it, but I had to give priority to MM as 70 percent of the movie was complete and I was in the MM look. I didn’t want to cut my hair and I didn’t want to use a wig, so I had to let it go.