Playing a superhero in a Malayalam cinema was never going to be easy, nor was dancing and doing those action sequences in a film that followed a format unfamiliar to the Malayalam audience. Tovino Thomas aced both those challenges in Minnal Murali and Thallumaala, respectively, and also managed to win over, not just the Malayalam audience, but viewers across the country. In his Onam release, a 3D fantasy adventure entertainer titled Ajayante Randam Moshanam, which has been in the making for at least six years, the actor will be seen in a triple role.

In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Tovino opens up about the challenges that went into making the movie, how his friends have been his biggest cheerleaders and how he overcame the apprehensions of playing multiple characters in the same movie. Excerpts from the interview.

Minnal Murali had missed a theatrical release. Though there were films like Thallumaala and 2018: Everyone’s A Hero, Ajayante Randam Moshanam is your biggest solo outing since the superhero film. So, what are your expectations from the film?

I wouldn’t say any of that; it’s better left to the audience to say that after the movie releases. To be honest, we are all happy after watching the final output of Ajayante Randam Moshanam. We believe that we would be able to surprise the audience with the film. That said, there’s still confusion on what the audience expects from the film. It’s a movie that’s made under Rs 30 crore budget, but we fear that the audience would expect something akin to a movie made with Rs 1,500 crore. But I can tell you for sure that every single penny in the film will show on screen.

Its director Jithin Laal pitched this script to you while you were shooting Godha back in 2016-17. Have you journeyed so long with any other film?

I don’t think so, nor have I allotted so many days for the promotions of a film either.

We had announced this project in 2020 even though we had plans to make it from 2018. Jithin and I met for the first time during the shoot of Koothara, a decade ago. It was among my first films; I did Prabhuvinte Makal, August Club, ABCD and though I had shot for Starring Pournami, we didn’t complete it. So, he knows me from when I started my career as an actor. He had also worked as an assistant director in Ennu Ninte Moideen and Godha, and was the associate director of Kalki. By then we had decided that we would do the film and he had already completed working on two to three drafts of the film.

I am blessed in a lot of ways. My intentions have always been pure. If you ask me if I work hard, I’d say I am selective about where I put in all my efforts. When it’s something I love doing, I will do whatever it takes within my limits. I am not someone who has the caliber to do everything; I am not born talented. No matter how many years pass, I would say that there’s still scope for improvement. So, my biggest fortune is that my friends trust me more than I do myself.

Jithin trusted me to pull off three different roles. I am not the only actor he knows. As soon as he narrated the story, I asked him, ‘Am I capable of doing that?’ It was the same in Minnal Murali, Thallumaala and 2018: Everyone’s A Hero where I had expressed my apprehensions - be it about playing a superhero, dancing or shooting underwater, respectively, to its directors. But they were all encouraging.

Even Godha had a thin arc for my character. It was just a role to connect Renji Panicker and Wamiqa Gabbi’s characters, but it took a different form on the sets of the movie. If the audience now thinks there’s more purpose to the character of Anjaneya Das, it’s because of the mutual trust between Basil Joseph and me. So, at various points of my career, my friends have put their trust in my talents more than I have ever done.

Has the film evolved with your stature as an actor too - because you have had a meteoric rise as a star since Godha’s release till now?

Of course. We couldn’t even think of mounting such a big film back then. Godha was made with a budget of just Rs 6-7 crores. It’s only after Minnal Murali widened the reach of Malayalam cinema that we started thinking of making movies with bigge r budgets. That said, it’s not like we wouldn’t have done it; we would have still gone ahead and made this film, albeit on a smaller scale.

Also, because of the time we had to make this film, there was growth in each of us - as human beings, actors and technicians. Even Jithin as a director, had acquired immense technical knowledge; his ideas were better.

The film has you in three different roles. How did you approach each character?

There was just a 10-day gap between my portions as Maniyan and Ajayan. The transition from Ajayan to Kunjikelu was less than 10 hours. I had completed the shoot for Ajayan’s portions in Thiruvananthapuram by 10.30pm, left for Karaikudi around 12am, reached the location, shaved the beard and wore the wig.

All these characters live in different eras - Maniyan in the 1700s, Kunjikelu in 1950s and Ajayan in the 1990s. So, what were the changes that you incorporated to differentiate these characters?

If this was for three different movies, the settings and the people involved alone would have helped me differentiate it, because with different cast and crew, there would be obvious changes in the ideas. But when we are doing the same film with the same team, I had apprehensions on how effective it would be. But Jithin told me, ‘We will treat it as three different movies’. I even told him other actors could play the other two roles, but he convinced me otherwise.

Luckily, we didn’t have to shoot these characters simultaneously at any point in time. But I wasn’t too satisfied with that either. I kept telling him, ‘This is something that Kamal Haasan had pulled off and right now, the reach of our cinema is also huge. People are now even criticising what great actors like him have done, so what would their reaction be to mine?’ That’s how we got an expert on board, someone who had theoretical knowledge about these eras. We fixed the looks, sound and mannerisms of each of these characters before the movie went on floors.

Because you have mentioned Kamal Haasan, in Tamil cinema, actors like Vijay or Vikram have made it a trend for a single hero to do multiple roles in a movie. But this can also go horribly wrong because the actor as well as the director sometimes try too hard to ensure that these characters are the extreme opposites.

Vikram sir is absolutely amazing, how he has portrayed the difference in each of his characters is just brilliant. When I see that, I think to myself: ‘Am I also in the same field?’

This movie is titled Ajayante Randam Moshanam and so, Ajayan’s character gets the lion’s share of the screen time, followed by Maniyan and Kunjikelu has the least. Those who have followed my career would know that I have always tried to ensure that my characters are human, convincing. So, even though the three characters represent - devaganam (godly), asuraganam (demonic) and manushyaganam (human), it’s all stories of people.

Whenever I have tried to play a character and even add subtle changes, I need to be aware of why I should add that expression or walk in a particular manner. We had several discussions about that. I wanted the characters to be distinct but it’s not that all three are extremely different. The film also has a non-linear narrative. So, we haven’t made any other alterations apart from what was essentially required for the story.

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