Vineeth Sreenivasan: For Varshangalkku Shesham, I had to decline films of several good directors

When you mention Vineeth Sreenivasan, the first thing that comes to mind would either be his directorials or his songs. But the multi-talented star has been churning out some brilliant performances post-pandemic in films such as Thankam, Mukundan Unni Associates and Pookkaalam, and was most recently seen in a totally mad-cap avatar as a police officer in Kurukkan.

In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Vineeth talks about his latest movie, why he now enjoys acting a lot and how he rates himself as an actor.

Your latest movie Kurukkan is a mad-cap comedy, something that you haven’t done before.

Thaneer Mathan Dinangal’s Ravi Padmanabhan was probably the most eccentric character I have played till I did Kurukkan. When you near the climax, there’s a certain level of madness to the film and I haven’t played a character that I have had to push so much.

Also read: Exclusive! Karan Johar giving me feedback on Hridayam still has me in a state of disbelief: Vineeth Sreenivasan 

Another highlight is that your father, Sreenivasan, made his comeback after illness with the film. For a lot of the audience, comedy is the genre they associate most with him.

I have felt that the genre that my father enjoys the most is also humour. Though the audience has seen him play emotional characters, the first thing that comes to their mind when they think of him are his comedic roles. Kurukkan is a movie where you don’t really have to employ logic and I think he enjoys that.

Post pandemic, you have done extremely different roles in movies such as Thankam, Mukundan Unni Associates and now, Kurukkan. As an actor, how would you rate your growth?

I don’t know about that. People are now thinking of different characters for me, especially post COVID. Even my current film, Oru Jathi Jathakam, is again a totally different movie; it’s total madness in fact. It’s a family-oriented film like my uncle (M Mohanan)’s previous movies but the subject it handles and its intricacies aren’t what the audience would usually expect from him.

Also read: Exclusive! Vineeth Sreenivasan: Mukundan Unni Associates has me playing a character with no virtues 

I just feel fortunate that all these movies came to me one after the other. Earlier, such roles would find me at isolated junctures. For instance, there would be a Chappa Kurishu, a Traffic and then years later, a Thaneer Mathan Dinangal. In between, I also take long gaps for my directorial ventures. So, I had committed to only limited acting ventures.

But after Hridayam, these films just aligned; it wasn’t planned at all. This year, I got several opportunities to work with good directors but I couldn’t take them up because I am set to start working on Varshangalkku Shesham later this year. After Oru Jathi Jathakam, I wouldn’t be acting for another one and a half years. So, whatever time I did spend with all these directors, I really had fun.

Also read: Exclusive! Vineeth Sreenivasan on Hridayam’s music: A song’s shelf life is much more than a movie’s  

You are peaking as a director with each film, but do you have similar goals for acting as well?

I haven’t thought about it much, actually. But over the years, I have started enjoying acting much more than I used to. I have been able to do combination scenes with great actors and have started finding joy in making minor tweaks to my reactions. After you have kids, you also change, start observing the smaller things and enjoying everything a lot more. I think all of that might have also helped.

You have also worked with your assistant directors and friends such as Ganesh Raj for Pookkaalam and Abhinav Sunder Nayak for Mukundan Unni Associates. These are people who know you very well. Does that also help them cast you in a character, which the audience might not associate with your persona?

It’s true. They know me personally and there’s that advantage where they can use my strengths. But for Thankam, Syam (Pushkaran) and (Saheed) Arafath first met to talk about the movie. Because I had done Chappa Kurishu before, they had an idea that the character of Kannan in Thankam could work if I had played it. It’s again a movie that I enjoyed working in.

Also read: Thankam on OTT: Vineeth Sreenivasan says a scene in the film haunted him much after he shot it | Exclusive