Asif Ali: Malayalam OTT releases have been noted on a pan-Indian level

In the past few years, Asif Ali has been moving from strength to strength and his script selection especially has been lauded by the critics and loved by the audience. With him being one of the most-sought actors in the Malayalam industry, we recently caught up with the Uyare actor to know how OTTs will impact the script selection of the artistes. 

“I think after the second lockdown, all of us have been asking ourselves that. All the Malayalam movies that released in OTTs recently have got attention on a pan-Indian level. So, it’s become a requisite to think about that while selecting your upcoming scripts. We have brilliant directors and writers, and our ideas are being discussed across the country. So, I will definitely try to be part of such films in the future,” says Asif, who was also part of films such as Kettyolaanu Ente Maalakha, Take Off and Virus. 

Asif’s next two releases – Kunjeldho and Elaam Sheriyaakkum – meanwhile are slotted for theatrical releases. On Kunjeldho, which will release on August 27, he says, “The movie is intended for a theatrical release because that’s its format. A feel-good movie is not something that people can pause and watch; it’s an emotion that has to be seen in its flow for people to understand. That’s the reason we have been waiting to release it in theatres. It’s about a problem that happens in Kunjeldho’s life and how he overcomes that. It’s an innocent movie that has ‘a Vineeth Sreenivasan touch’.”

Elaam Sheriyaakkum, which has him teaming up with director Jibu Jacob after Vellimoonga, will have him playing a member of a political party. “Jibu chettan’s film is about a person who takes up politics because he is unemployed,” he says, about the film that also has his Anuraga Karikkin Vellam co-star Rajisha Vijayan in the lead.