Joju George gets emotional during State Award speech: 'Don't know if I can achieve anything bigger than this'

The past few years has seen Joju George emerge as one of the best performers in Malayalam cinema and the entire country took notice of his talent through his films such as Nayattu, Joseph, Madhuram and Jagame Thandhiram. The actor had an emotional moment, when he accepted his first Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor on Saturday in Thiruvanathapuram.

In his speech, the actor said, “This is the biggest achievement in my life. I came here wanting to say a lot, but things have turned emotional. This journey, where I started from somewhere, I have reached here.”

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Explaining that a lot of people have helped him along the way, he specifically thanked Biju Menon and Mammootty. “I have acted in over 100 films now and each movie was a lesson. In many films, it’s my friends and mentors who taught me what to do, what not to and what to correct. I want to thank all of them. I don’t know whether I can achieve something bigger than this,”­ he said, before breaking off, unable to hold back his tears.

Before this year’s awards, Joju had won a Special Mention for his performances in Oru Second Class Yathra and Luka Chuppi in 2015 and was adjudged the Best Character Actor for his roles in Chola and Joseph in 2018. This year the actor shared the award for Best Actor with Biju Menon. Joju was felicitated for his performances in Martin Prakkat’s Nayattu, Ahammed Kabeer’s Madhuram, Jeo Baby’s Freedom Fight and Rajeev Ravi’s Thuramukham, which is expected to hit theatres in November this year.

Joju’s performances in the past few years had also opened doors for the actor in various other industries. He made his Tamil debut last year with Dhanush-starrer Jagame Thandhiram, which dropped directly on Netflix. The actor was also part of Putham Pudhu Kaalai Vidiyaadhaa and the Tamil-Malayalam bilingual Adrishyam.