PremiumBasil Joseph on the appeal of Maranamass: I thought it would be great to…
Maranamass is a Vishu 2025 theatrical release. Produced by Tovino Thomas, the dark comedy has Basil Joseph in the lead and follows events in a village terrorized by a serial killer.
Last Updated: 08.23 PM, Apr 02, 2025
Malayalam actor-filmmaker Basil Joseph is preparing for his third release of the year, following Pravinkoodu Shappu and PonMan. This time, he is a part of debutant director Sivaprasad’s Maranamass, which will be one of three Vishu presentations at the Kerala box office. The film’s produced by Basil’s close pal and actor Tovino Thomas, while Sivaprasad was an assistant director on the set of the former’s directorial, Minnal Murali. While that was reason enough for Basil to be a part of the film, the genre also appealed to him a great deal.
“The idea was very interesting. A dark comedy with a lot of satire and pop culture references. It’s like a spoof-driven film and yet it is not a complete spoof. It’s a highly exaggerated, funny film. It’s not the grounded, realistic kind of a film – it’s very over the top. I thought it would be great to do something crazy,” he said speaking to the Nona Prince podcast.
Speaking about his character, Basil says that he’s the kind of mischief monger who’d post images of a police station for sale on OLX, because it is of no use. “Luke is a crazy guy, who refers to himself as a sigma male,” he says, adding that for the most part, the narrative of the film follows events happening in one night. The basic thread of the film is about a small village living in fear of a serial killer and a cop assigned to investigate it,” he says.
Basil adds that the film is not about the hero’s journey, but a combination of every character in the story. “It’s a combined adventure of everyone in the tale,” he explains. Talking about his process as an actor in terms of choices of roles, Basil added that the conviction and clarity of the filmmaker is very important, apart from the story and the screenplay. “Screen space and how much I can build my profile does not matter. I just wish to be a part of a good film and my character should contribute to the plot in ensuring that it becomes engaging enough for the 2 to 2 and half hour duration,” he says.