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Asif Ali talks about stepping into the new role of
producer-actor with his film Kohinoor.
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Long before he took a picture with Kamal Haasan in Kochi as a besotted fan, long before he was cast by Shyamaprasad as one of the leads in Ritu, Asif Ali had wanted to be involved with cinema. That was his biggest passion.
The passion is not limited to acting alone. “To be an actor was a dream from a young age. But, I wanted to do more in cinema. That is why I decided to turn a producer,” says Asif in an interview.
His first film as a producer, Kohinoor, is reaching cinemas today. “I have been thinking seriously of starting a production house for quite some time. When director Vinay Govind, with whom I had worked in Kili Poyi, came up with the idea ofKohinoor, I thought it could be a film I could make my debut as a director. Thus I floated a company called Adam’s World of Imagination, along with my friends Sajin Jaffer and Brijeesh Mohammad,” he says.
Kohinoor, he adds, is a heist film, set in the 1980s. “The film is about some small-time thieves planning a big robbery in a textile store at a town in Kozhikode and the accent is on humour. Aju Varghese, Vinay Forrt and Chemban Vinod Jose and I play the thieves. Their inspiration for their act is Malayalam films such asAthirathram and Irupatham Noottandu,” Asif elaborates.
He says a lot of homework has gone into Kohinoor. “We worked on the pre-production for close to six months. We wanted a girl who could pull of the 80s look; that is how we cast newcomer Aparna Vinod,” he says.
Asif will soon be moving on to the next film of his production house. “I want to keep on producing films, even as I continue my career as an actor. My release after Kohinoor will be Adventures of Omanakuttan,” says Asif.
The film, directed by debutant V.S. Rohith, is a romantic comedy, he adds. “I play a call-centre executive. Bhavana is the heroine,” he says.
Among his forthcoming films are Rajamma@yahoo and Anuraga Karikkin Vellam. “Both are fun films. While I share screen space with Kunchacko Boban in Rajamma@yahoo, in Anuraga Karikkin Vellam, Biju Menon plays an important role,” says Asif.
He says he has decided not to act in every movie that comes his way. “There was a time when I acted in far too many films; I didn’t want to say no to a senior director and producer. Some of those films didn’t do my career any good,” he says.
Looking back at his life in cinema, he says he is happy with what he has done. “I have come up the hard way; I had struggled for a few years before I landed Ritu. I was working at a television channel when Kukku Parameswaran, who was my colleague, told me that Shyamaprasad was looking for actors. Before that, I had been told by producers and directors that I was too short and dark to be an actor,” he recalls.
It was that photo he took with Kamal that made him confident. “I stood next to him and found that he was shorter than me. And, in my book, there was no better actor,” says Asif.
Ritu, which also brought in a season of change for Malayalam cinema, proved to be a dream start in tinsel town for him. He became part of several successful films such as Salt N’ Pepper, Traffic,Ordinary, Mallu Singh, Ustad Hotel, Indian Rupee and Vellimoonga, though he may not have played big roles in all of them.
When some strong roles came his way, he accepted them gladly. Like the one in Sapthamashree Thaskaraha, in which he gave one of his best performances as a tough, prison inmate. “I didn’t know if I could pull off that intimidating character with my not-so-imposing look. But, I was able to do it, and I got excellent feedback, like I did for films such as Salt N’ Pepper and Apoorvaragam.”
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