PremiumExclusive! Biju Menon: My priority has always been to satisfy the audience rather than find personal joy
The Lalitham Sundaram actor talks about the changes he has made in his selection criteria after the success of Ayyappanum Koshiyum
Last Updated: 03.00 AM, Mar 27, 2022
The success of Ayyappanum Koshiyum in 2020 catapulted Biju Menon to national fame. This attention that the role has given him is not lost on the actor either, who tells us that he is now more careful when it comes to choosing his characters.
In an exclusive interview, the veteran actor tells us, “After a movie becomes a success, you have the responsibility to meet their expectations with your next projects. So, right after Ayyappanum Koshiyum, I did a totally opposite character in Aarkkariyam. The priority has always been to satisfy the audience, more than look at my personal happiness. It’s only when a movie reaches the audience, we also become satisfied.”
While his role as Ayyappan Nair in the Sachy directorial showed that he is an actor capable to pull off the ‘mass’ moments in a film, with Sanu John Varghese’s debut directorial Aarkkariyam, which had Biju play a 70-year-old man, he proved that he had all the skills in his arsenal to pull off a movie that focused on layered storytelling too.
In the most recent venture Lalitham Sundaram, the actor has once again gone back to his forte of feel-good, family entertainers, a genre that he has always enjoyed. The Madhu Wariar directorial, which also has Manju Warrier, Anu Mohan and Deepti Sati, is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
On the changes that he has made in terms of picking films, the actor says, “The pandemic has been a challenging period for the film industry. So, I have had to do a lot of small films because not all movies are getting theatrical releases. So, that would probably be the major changes in the story selection, otherwise, what I have always prioritised is choosing the good stories.”
Biju, meanwhile, has completed shooting for Sreejith N’s Oru Thekkan Thallu Case, which also has Roshan Mathew, Nimisha Sajayan and Padmapriya. The actor is next to begin shooting for Thankam, which has Vineeth Sreenivasan as his co-star and is produced by Dileesh Pothan and Syam Pushkaran.