Inside KR Gokul's metamorphosis: The making of Hakeem in Aadujeevitham
KR Gokul's performance as Hakeem is at the heart of Aadujeevitham's emotional core along with Prithviraj's Najeeb Mohammed.
Apr 01, 2024
KR Gokul's transformation photo for Aadujeevitham
Actor KR Gokul expressed deep gratitude for landing a key role in director Blessy's latest movie, Aadujeevitham aka The Goat Life . Starring Malayalam star Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead, the film revolves around only a handful of characters. And Gokul's performance as Hakeem is at the heart of the movie's emotional core along with Prithviraj's Najeeb Mohammed.
"Aadujeevitham, as far as I am concerned, is like a dream come true for me," said Gokul.
Aadujeevitham's Hakeem
Hakeem is a younger companion of Najeeb and they both belong to the same village in Kerala. The two fly off to a Gulf country hoping to find better job opportunities. But, all their dreams of a wonderful future are brutally crushed when they fall into the traps of the wrong employer.
"I joined this film in 2017. I sent them (filmmakers) my photos and received a call in two days. I was told to come to Kochi immediately and audition for the movie," Gokul noted.
Gokul recalled that he was asked to play the role of a man jailed for killing his mother while auditioning for Aadujeevitham. "So what I did is I looked straight at Blessy sir and said 'It's you...you are the reason'. Blessy sir's eyes widened looking at my performance. And he told me that I had been selected to play Hakeem," he added. "That's how this beautiful journey began."
A journey of transformation
Gokul said that it was easy for him to connect with his character as he discovered he was very similar to Hakeem. "I felt I had a lot of similarities with Hakeem's character. Just like me, he had many dreams. I imagined how he would walk, sit, talk, eat food, and sleep and tried living a similar life. The physical transformation of this character was really a tough process. Because I had to lose my weight from 64 kgs to 44 kgs," he noted.
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Both Gokul and Prithviraj had to lose a lot of body weight to visually depict the extreme ordeal that their characters faced at the hands of their evil employers. And in the process of weight loss, Gokul was able to establish a stronger connection with his character. "I felt that if I didn't experience at least 10 per cent of the difficulties faced by real-life Hakeem, how could I truly play this character?" he noted.
He also gave big credit to the costume designers and make-up artists for helping him get into his character.
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