For Malayalam star Nivin Pauly, the journey from the boy-next-door romantic hero of his early career to more serious and performance-oriented roles has been marked by great successes and experiments.
But after years of exploring different genres, the actor says he is now consciously returning to entertainment-driven films. In this exclusive chat with NDTV, the talented star talks about his recent blockbuster Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, what he’s now looking for in scripts and more.
Sarvam Maya was a hit, but Bethlehem Kudumba Unit surpassed its success and became the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever. Making more than Rs 310 crore at the box office, the Girish AD-directed film has connected strongly with family audiences.
Ask Nivin Pauly why it found so much resonance with them, and he says, “It’s all about relatable, authentic, honest writing. The success of these films has made me realise that I should focus on entertainment. Before, I used to select scripts from any genre. It could be a thriller, it could be a serious role, it could be an entertaining film. Right now, I’m focusing only on entertainment. I think Sarvam Maya, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit and the film which I’m doing right now with Rukmini Vasanth – all these films are in that zone.”
One of the striking aspects of Bethlehem Kudumba Unit (BKU) has been the way it has brought family audiences to theatres. Despite being built around an older man-younger woman romance, the film has found an audience beyond young viewers. “I think it’s because of the writing. Director Girish AD wrote it really well. Both the characters (Ashley and Justin) were very relatable. Both were imperfect roles – they were imperfect protagonists. I think people related to those characters – the hero, heroine, and all the supporting characters. Right now, the audience loves such honest, relatable films, where they can come to the theatres with family, with their parents, with their kids and watch. I think that can be one of the reasons why this film became a big hit.”
The family response to BKU, produced by Bhavana Studios, has been particularly meaningful to the actor. “We’re really happy that the family audience love the film. We are getting many messages and calls saying that we were able to take our grandparents and our kids to the theatre because it’s a ‘clean’ film. The audience is getting an opportunity to watch a film with their entire family – this is the biggest takeaway from this film,” smiles the Premam star.
The Moothon star has experimented with several genres, including dark roles, during his career but audiences continue to have a strong connection with his boy-next-door persona. Premam, in particular, became a major turning point, with the film enjoying an extraordinary theatrical run in Chennai and elsewhere. “In my initial days, most of my roles were boy-next-door, romantic films and humorous roles – like I said, all those roles are very imperfect, very relatable. One among the audience. I think that was one of the reasons want me to play such characters but I also felt the need to challenge myself. As an actor, we should try different roles and different genres. We should work with different directors and different teams. That’s a part of our journey,” he emphasises.
After Premam, however, he found himself at a crossroads. Feels the Richie star, “It would have been very easy to do more rom-coms after Premam. But Premam was a benchmark. After that film, I was searching for a script which could do better than Premam. I wanted to do something different, more serious and performance-oriented. That was the reason I did Moothon, Thuramukham, Padavettu and all those films.”
As of now, there are several filmmakers Nivin would like to collaborate with, including Tarun Moorthy, Vibin Das, Amal Neerad and Martin Prakkat. He is also a fan of Tamil film director Nelson Dilipkumar and would love to work with the Jailer director. And there is one Malayalam star in particular with whom he has long wanted to share screen space. “I want to work with Mammuka. That is my dream,” he says, referring to Mammootty. “I’m still waiting!”
