Padavettu on OTT: Our aim was to make a commercial film but with different elements, says Nivin Pauly

Despite the brickbats from a certain section of audience against Nivin Pauly’s recent choices of films, the actor is proud about his projects – especially his recent release Padavettu, which is directed by Liju Krishna and is set to release on Netflix on November 25.

The movie, which also has Aditi Balan in the lead, revolves around Nivin’s character Ravi – who was once a promising athlete but his life turned topsy turvy after he met with an accident that crashed his dreams. Ravi, who is now apathetic and prefers to live an isolated life within the confines of his own house with his aunt, finally decided to reclaim his self-esteem after a political party threatens to pull him down again. How he becomes the voice of his people by taking a stand forms the plot of this socio-political drama.

In a recent interview with OTTplay, Nivin talked in length about how the movie offers a different experience to the audience, something that he subscribes to and looks for in every movie that he signs up.

“I think our audience wants to see something different from the usual patterns. Our aim was to make a commercial film but with different elements,” he said. The actor also lauded its director Lijo as he “conceived certain scenes in way that it blended organically to the movie”. Nivin also said that the movie’s music by Govind Vasantha and its sound design “was able to bring some novelty to the movie”.

On his role Ravi, the actor said there was a lot of discussions between him and Liju that allowed him to get into the headspace of the character. “We had discussed a lot about what Ravi has been enduring. There was a lot more detailing into what happened after he met with the accident,” said Nivin, saying that most of it is only hinted in the movie.

For instance, his character suffers from foot drop, where he can’t lift his leg. “We show that in the first scene where he drags his foot,” he says, adding that this is the reason Ravi is stuck home and prefers not going out. Also, the character is frustrated that he has to depend on livestock for his living when it was a cow that destroyed his life in that accident.