Exclusive! Biju Menon: OTTs give you a lot of confidence and courage to take up different subjects

Over the years, Malayalam actor Biju Menon has said that he has based the selection of his film, purely on the idea that it should appeal to the audience in theatres and it shouldn’t cause a loss to the producer. But with OTT platforms now opening up another channel for movies, the Ayyappanum Koshiyum actor says it also gives freedom to the artistes to pick films they wouldn’t have in the past.

In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Biju, who had his first direct-to-OTT release with Madhu Wariar’s Lalitham Sundaram earlier this month says, “OTTs gives you a lot of confidence. Earlier, there used to be restrictions in terms of the movies that you are doing, primarily because they are all theatrical releases. With OTTs, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. You have that confidence that there is a platform for movies of any genre. This also gives you the courage to take up different subjects.”

The actor also says that for theatrical releases, filmmakers had to “fit in a lot of commercial elements to appeal to the audience”. “But now, we have a space to do without that,” he says.

Biju also explains that there is a marked difference in terms of the feedback after a movie releases on OTTs. After Lalitham Sundaram dropped on Disney+ Hotstar on March 18, Biju said that a lot of people went to great lengths to find his contact number and get in touch with them. “They had a lot to share about how they connected with the film,” he says.

The actor’s next release, meanwhile, will be Bro Daddy co-scriptwriter Sreejith N’s debut directorial Oru Thekkan Thallu Case, which also has Roshan Mathew, Nimisha Sajayan, Padmapriya and Aswathlal as part of the cast.

“It’s made on a big scale as it’s a period film. The film is based on GR Indugopan’s popular novel and we believe it has come out well,” he says, adding that he will next join the sets of Thankam, which also has Vineeth Sreenivasan in the lead.

Also read: Exclusive! Biju Menon on working with Parvathy, Roshan and Nimisha: I keenly watch them perform on sets