This movie is this can be considered as
an emotion for everyone everyone
see themselves in the movie I'm least
bothered about box office
collection it's not an actors job too for
Malyalam movies your budget is very less
compared to other industries so what
we do is we work hard we work over time
we work for less pays your minimal budget
is lesser that the promotion budget for a
Bollywood movie oh come on if
it's not theatrical me and basil won't
be associating with it.
Hi guys this is Himesh and welcome to
Pinkvilla today we have with us
Tovino Thomas who's film is 2018 is
roaring at the box office in Kerala.
welcome to Pinkvilla you know it's lovely
having you here.
you know my first question to you is
how do you view this euphoria around 2018
in Kerala I believe the Monday collection
are almost at past Sunday which is
something which rarely happens so
how do you do this
so I'm very happy about the reception the
movie is getting apart from the box office
collection during these times of social
media it is very hard to see almost
100 percent of positive review for a movie
it's very hard to see all the movies
all the movies even if it's a blockbuster
really having mixer reviews nowadays
because different people have different
taste but this movie uh I think maybe
because it's an emotion for malayalies
what happened in 2018 cannot forget that
very easily yeah it happened five six
years back and uh we were all devastated
affected so much that it will remain a
scar in everyone's mind forever so this
movie is definitely not a reminder of what
happened back there like what the disaster
happened back then but this movie is a
reminder of the unity of the people the
way people help each other the way people
loved each other so that that time we got
this hope that human beings are actually
very good yeah their situation are not
letting them to love each other but
when calamity like this happens people
without any instructions without any
government or anyone instructing started
doing like people started doing camps
people started helping everyone
started checking out everyone their
neighbors are you safe are you fine like
fine yeah so all this things happen
without anyone instructing them to do that
true so that means we have this love
and that that caring for others as a
society we have that within us you know
and I have read about you also being
actively involved back then to help people
when the natural calamity happened from
there till now is it like life a
coming full circle for you because you
were actively involved in helping people
and now your acting in a film which
is set against the backdrop of getting
people in a big way to the cinema hall
Maybe as I told earlier this movie is
this can be considered as an emotion
for everyone there everyone could see
themselves in the movie they have either
been in the actual place of floods or
maybe they have seen it in television
or they have heard uh their friends or
families someone was affected for
for every Malayali they might be knowing
someone who was affected during the floods
so for me I'm one of them who my house
was not affected so first thought I had
in my mind was okay my house is open
anyone who wants to stay in my house
can come and stay because I was not
sure that we'll survive that floods and
if we all are perishing in that flood
I wanted to do something good and perish
so I it was not planned like I didn't I'm
not someone who goes out and do things
I'm generally a bit shy but whatever I did
maybe more than that my friends has done
my brother my friends brother and almost
90 percent of people in my hometown they
were doing the same thing so just because
I am popular people came to know this
I haven't done anything more than that
Basically that's what the tagline of the
film is there is a hero within everyone
Yeah everyone is a hero everyone has
something to do even if they do this very
very small part it can be a help to others
and that's what this movie says when you
look at this movie we can see like
generally people um students or people
who are jobless who are online all the
time they are been ridiculed by everyone
that you are useless to the society
but they worked as control center
you know WhatsApp group for rescue
operations they were passing information
so everyone they deserve
Whatever was the best of them yes
There is also a talk that the film might
become an industry hit you know topping
I think Pulimurgan is the one
which holds that yeah
I'm no one to predict anything yeah
I'm least bothered about the box office
collection it's not an actor's job to uh
worry about the box office collection
it's the producers worry and if the
producer is getting a lot of money I'm
very happy about that but for me the
critical perception the way people uh
enjoying this movie and the way people
receiving this movie and how this movie
is going to stay in people's mind that's
what matters for me okay and how they
like my performance these all are my
worries and box office is not my job
it's not an actor's job to worry whatever
the box office collection is
It just comes okay and you know
the film is now going pan India with
its like you know you are planning
to take the film in multiple languages
It's by 12th of this month we are
planning to release it in Hindi Kannada
Tamil and Telugu so probably people can
watch it in their own language and so that
nothing will be lost in translation people
don't have to read the subtitles and yeah
we are trying to break that
one and a half Inch barrier
Actually that is my next question what
according to you are the barriers when it
comes to take you know not every story
is pan India so what according to you
is needed in a story to go pan India
and what are the barriers when it
comes to talking a film panic
See we cannot predict it like we don't
know what works for people yeah we always
keep on doing trial and error and the
only way to find out is trying it doing
different kind of movies but there are
certain movies movies which can go
universal you can if the idea for example
Minnal Murali was something like that
and in superhero concept it already
know to everyone and the only thing we had
to do was keep it different keep it
more grounded so that it will look
different from other superhero movies whic
we have seen and maybe like when you
look at the Malayalam industry during
the pandemic during the lockdown there was
this movie called 'See you soon' it was
received all over the internet we didn't
release it in theatres but so that worked
for most of the people all over India so
can be called Pan India so mass appealing
movies and movies which have got content
can work for people all around the world
all around the country and more than that
all around the World like what RRR did
what KGF did what Baahubali did
what Kantara did yeah so you don't know
don't know how much you can go maybe
sky is the limit maybe the time which we
are releasing the movie maybe the way
we are releasing the movie I mean the
promotion all of this factors matter for
Malayalam movies are budget is very less
compared to other industries so what we
do is we work hard we work overtime we
work for less pay so that's how we all
work that's why during after pandemic even
during pandemic when we were allowed to
shoot with 50 people in the casting
group we could make movies easily because
we are used to make movies in a very
controlled and constraint budget so we
have to put in lot of effort Minnal budget
is very little compared to other movies
Minnal Murli budget is lesser than the
promotion budget Bollywood movies.
And that's also a talent that also a
talent to you know
But still the problem is we
don't have use promotion budget the movie
has to speak for itself and it has to work
like this movie happened but what if
you don't know that the movie has
already released so it's very hard to
reach the whole India and promote a movie
for what we need a particular budget but
when the producer is spending so much
for a movie they don't want to compromise
anything in the quality of the movie maybe
he will not be left with more money to do
the promotions so we are trying to do
something about that correct so maybe
associating with other distributors in
different states so we are trying to do
something like that for next movie I don't
know it's definitely that movie needs
that kind of promotion because I have
high hopes that particular movies its
called Ajagajajantharam so we had to shoot
for a Malayalam movie shooting for 6 month
and and its a very long time so I haven't
short any movie for this much time so for
that movie I am playing 3 different
characters and we had to go and go through
a lot of difficulties to complete that
movie but the first edit is done and
we all watched the movie and we
have we got High Hopes on that movie
okay so before that movie we are pursuing
are producers to go big to try and
do what other industries has already
achieved like before Bahubali we didn't
have that kind of a thought like a Pan
India the term pan India after
there after Bahubali
aur KGF success you know so I am pursuing
my producer now to do something it's not
for me it's like for me that movie will
release and even if it releases in an
OTT platform people will watch and
appreciate whatever we have done but
more than that it's for for the industry
it's for the producers themselves its for
the for everyone who worked in that movie
or everyone who works in Malayalam
industry
To leave a mark nationally basically yeah
Yeah if one or two movies perform well all
over the India from Malayalam industry
the and 4th movie or the remaining
movies if it has a potential it
will be easier true
You know actually that was my next
question there is Minnal only to which a
large chunk of audience have watched
the film already on ott you have spoken
about the part 2 that you want to
make it and theoretical film as well
It will be a theoretical film if it's not
theoretical me and basil won't be
associating with that okay so that what
we want let me know Murali won and we
want Netflix to acquire the OTT rights
because we want to have mineral 1 and 2 on
Netflix but after theatres to release we
need a theatre for that kind of movie we
have seen we created that movie for
theatres but unfortunately because of thos
circumstances we had to release it in ott
but Netflix did a very good job in
promoting that movie if we had a
theoretical release I don't know if we
could have done that much promotion
anymore we cannot bring Yuvraj Singh we
cannot bring Khali for a promotion you
know it's very hard with the budget we
have in our hands to do such promotion
so I am very much thankful to Netflix
for promoting like that and whatever
promotions they did it work but that was
particular circumstance in that situation
we had no other options but when the world
is all open again we want to do Minnial2
when we release it we want it to be releas
in proper all languages in proper theatres
with very good sound system and
projection system because superhero
movies are it needs that
But what the status of that film like so
basil is very busy acting he is doing
excellent he worked together in Aram and
last year we work together in deer friend
he is very busy acting and he is very
successfully doing that he has become
a dad couple of days a couple of weeks
months back and he is busy parenting so
diaper changing and stuff so let him enjoy
that particular phase and we have to
thin line idea of Minnal Murli to but it
has to be developed and it has to be
perfect it has to go beyond what
Minnal Murali could do the memory to
should be much better than we one because
when we have a huge success like our
responsibility is higher and we want to
go beyond the expectations of people.
But you know when we talk of the Pan India
phenomenon one thing which struck me is do
you feel when directors like Malayalam
director makes a Hindi film like say
suppose a basil I believe he is doing
Shaktimaan so if he direct a Hindi film
that would also help the industry leave a
mark in certain way and make the director
like because you know cinema is eventually
directors medium so that gives that
automatically do you believe in that
I don't know about that but when
a director from a Malayalam is doing
a Bollywood it will definitely look
different because the experience is a
Malayali director had would be very
different from whatever and similarly
when the Bollywood director doing
Hollywood movies also the same thing
happens there will be a fresh spectacle
dude whatever they see so the movies can
much better like or else one director
keeping on doing movies and the it
can become monotonous so trying out
in different languages is trying out
with different film crew might help
apart from that I don't know I don't
I cannot predict things I can
tell you the possibilities that's it
Is there any director on your wish
list that you want to work with
I want to work with every good director
every good actor every
good technician in the world
What we re you are expectations while
committing to this film and are you
satisfied I mean of course you are
satisfied but what were your expectations
when you signed on for the film
So I want to whenever I commit the movie
I want that movie to work I want that movi
to reach it it's target audience and do
reliable this movie targeted audience
were everyone like this movie has to be
whatever this movie is getting now
I expected at least half of this and
now it went way beyond all our
expectations and its doing so well so I am
believe the content of the movie is that
always the king and this movie has that
kind of content and are has been chasing
this movie for past 4-5 years and he
narrated the script to me in 2018 and in
2019 we started shooting for this movie
but what happened was because of the
pandaic we had to break the shoot and
again into 2022 We started again and we
could completed and there were Times we
thought this movie will never happen but
we kept on pursuing so we what we did
was built a huge tank in 12 acres of land
we build a huge land and we could keep
the houses the art the art director made
all these and makes it makesshift houses
and that's how we shot this it's not
CGI the houses the floods so everyone is
asking how did you achieve this we had
to go to the hardest way and that was
the smartest too like because it had to
be perfect and show the art director and
the editor the way he changed the soul of
the movies it's great like an editor he
always invisible people will never
appreciate them but this movie needed
something any invisible editor and as
I told the art director and the film crew
the direction team and all the artist
you know when it's assemble cast comes
on screen it's not very easy to bring
everyone together everyone is busy with
their own movies so this movie was
almost impossible to shoot and we could
producers for a Malayalam movie this is
a big budget not the biggest but its still
a big big budget for a Malayalam movie
trusting us and spending this much money
it was the producers vision to trust and
I hope this movie brings them lot of money
so that we can make even bigger movies
I am sure it will it is already so on that
note thank you so much looking forward to
seeing 2018 soon and also please do watch
and if you like please spread the words
please spread the word thank you
best of luck
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