Exclusive! Sarjano Khalid: I have high hopes for my raw character in Sidhartha Siva’s Ennivar

Malayalam actor Sarjano Khalid has been trying his hand at various roles since his noted performance in Rajisha Vijayan-starrer June. He acted in a music video, shared screen space with Mohanlal in Big Brother and Gautam Vasudev Menon in the web series Queen. While the pandemic has somewhat slowed the momentum, Sarjano is hardly resting.

The actor, who is also part of Vikram’s big budget film Cobra, had wrapped up his portions for Sidhartha Siva’s Ennivar during the lockdown. Talking to OTTplay about the project, the young actor says, “Sidhartha sir had conducted the acting workshop for all of us before we began the shoot of June. In the middle of the lockdown, he called me and said there’s a film he is planning and asked me if I would be interested. I went to listen to the script and within two days, we went to shoot in Attapadi.”

Majority of the movie, which also has Jeo Baby, Sudheesh, Sooraj S Kurup and Binu Pappu, was shot in Attapadi with a few portions set in Kochi. “It was a small crew of just 12-13 people. All of us stayed in a house in Attapadi for 15 days and so all of us did everything. Though the movie was planned as a ‘festival mood’ film, after the editing, we are hearing positive feedback and that it has commercial value,” explains the actor.

Further on his role in the movie, Sarjano says, “It’s completely different from the chocolate boy role I played in June. My character is raw in this and that’s why I have my hopes pinned on it. For me and everyone who has acted in it, the movie gave us something different to showcase.”

While Ennivar is a relatively small film, the actor is also part of Vikram’s big budget Tamil movie titled Cobra that is directed by R Ajay Gnanamuthu. “I am doing Cobra now. It was delayed due to the lockdowns, but now we have resumed and almost 80% of the movie is done. My previous schedule was in Kolkata and I will next shoot in Chennai,” he says. “It is a huge film, with Vikram sir in the lead and AR Rahman composing for it. While I can’t reveal much about my character, as an actor, it was really challenging for me.”

Ask him about his upcoming projects and Sarjano says, “I have committed to a few other films but because the locations and dates are still uncertain due to the pandemic, it would be too soon to talk about them.”