- Vineeth Sreenivasan, Tovino Thomas, Basil Joseph, and Shaan Rahman collaborated on the Malayalam film Athiradi
- Tovino Thomas is noted for his dedication and willingness to do multiple takes on set
- Basil Joseph acted, produced Athiradi, and is praised for his continuous learning and growth
What happens when four friends come together and decide to work on a film? The shoot turns into a complete laugh riot with a lot of leg-pulling, banter, good food and an endless stream of hilarious anecdotes. And this is exactly what happened when Tovino Thomas, Basil Joseph, Vineeth Sreenivasan and Shaan Rahman got together for the recent Malayalam hit film Athiradi directed by Arun Anirudhan. In an exclusive chat with NDTV, actor-writer-director-singer Vineeth Sreenivasan opened up about his friends and the film as well.
Ask Vineeth what is the kind of friendship Basil, Tovino, Shaan and he share and he replies, "It's the kind of friendship that everyone has with their close friends where you can take the kind of freedom with each other and not censor yourself. I know Tovi through Basi as they are very close and we all share a comfortable relationship. Shaan and I have known each other for 20 years now. We did an independent album together called Coffee at MG Road years back and it did really well."
What Makes His Co-Stars Special
What stands out for the Mukundan Unni Associates actor as far as Tovino Thomas goes is how hardworking he is. Says Vineeth, "It's very inspiring to see Tovino on set. Even if the director says a take is nice, he'll check the monitor and sweetly ask if he can do one more take especially when he has lengthy dialogues and long takes. He'd never be easily satisfied with his work. Tovino also gave me a lot of tips on how to take care of one's health and diet and this was important for me. On set, Basil is not just an actor - he's a complete film personality. Since he also produced Athiradi, he used to think about his performance, others' performance, then as a director and as a producer. His mind was always on the end goal and the success of the film."
Recently, Basil Joseph had stated that Vineeth was the one who gave his big break in the film industry when he hired him as assistant director for Thira (2013) but Vineeth humbly says the Minnal Murali director started his career with him. "I think I'm very proud of how much he has grown as an artist. There was a time when he would ask me things and I have reached a point where I have started asking him things. He has put in a lot of hard work. Every time I meet Basil, he's an updated version of himself. He's like that nerd in the industry - he wants to know everything, learn everything and he'll do it also! I'm very proud of him," he smiles. And as for musician Shaan Rahman, he was just having fun on the set, elaborates Vineeth. "Though the script was sealed, Shaan would make all these little improvisations that would make the scenes much more hilarious," he laughs.
From Thira To Athiradi
It was in 2008 that Vineeth Sreenivasan made his acting debut in the film Cycle but today, he has gained popularity as a writer, director, producer and singer too. Son of the acting legend Sreenivasan, the Hridayam director has found resounding success over the years in every field he made a foray into. "I didn't expect this much out of my career. When I started off, the dream was to make a film that would run to packed houses and would entertain the audience. I got all of that in my first two films. What I manifested materialised and I didn't have ambitions to go into other film industries. I didn't have checklists like many people have. I just went with the flow and made films I wanted to and produced films with people I like like my assistant directors. I didn't imagine all this when I started off at 24 and it's really nice. I can't complain at all," he says with gratitude.
With numerous films in the pipeline as an actor, Vineeth has decided to put direction on the backburner till he completes these assignments. "I'm currently shooting for a zombie film in Palakkad and it's the first zombie film in Malayalam cinema. Basil also makes a cameo in this film. Another movie of mine is set to release in the next few months and I'm excited about that too. Meanwhile, I have a lot of stage shows planned and that's also going to keep me busy for a while. Shaan and I have performed stage shows together also around a decade back. I really enjoy stage shows and singing has always been an integral part of my life," signs off the Varshangalkku Shesham director.
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