Exclusive! Asif Ali on Jan.E.Man: Chidambaram never felt it needed a marketable star to work

Jan.E.Man, which has Basil Joseph, Ashokan and Balu Varghese in pivotal roles, was a superhit

Asif Ali and (right) poster of Jan.E.Man

It was a given that Malayalam actor Asif Ali would be part of Chidambaram’s directorial debut. But surprisingly the actor was relegated to just a voice narration in Jan.E.Man, which featured Basil Joseph, Arjun Ashokan, Ganapathy, Lal and Balu Varghese in pivotal roles. Asif, however, is more than pleased with the outcome of the superhit film.

In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, ahead of the release of his latest movie Kotthu, the actor talked about being part of Jan.E.Man and why he was delighted about the success of the film despite his limited screen time.

“I was associated with the film from its very initial stage. But there was no space for me in that movie and all of us realised that there was no need for me to appear in it,” said Asif. “At no point did we think it needed a marketable actor. That’s one of the qualities of Chidambaram. We used to discuss about the film at every stage of its development and he was so confident it would work.”

The movie was one of the first films to hit theatres after the second lockdown in Kerala and it emerged as a superhit. “All of us knew it would work but we didn’t expect it to be so successful. There’s a huge difference between good movies and those that actually run in theatres. So, we had that apprehension,” he said.

Though Asif only had a voice narration at the end, the actor said itself gave him a lot of joy. “I knew its story and was on the sets when the shoot was happening, but when I watched it in theatres and my voice narration came, I could hear the whispers of my name among the audience. I was delighted because there’s that happiness when you get to be part of a good film,” said the actor, who recently wrapped up shooting for Shaji Kailas’ Kaapa.

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