Indrans has an innate dignity and composure about him, which is hard to believe if one were to go by the roles he portrayed in his initial days as an actor. For, with the physical features, he was the perennial laughing butt in film after film. But the man never complained and kept ploughing away.
And just as he made the grades from being a costume assistant to an independent costume designer, Indrans turned the tables on the unconvinced as he metamorphosed from a sidekick to a versatile character actor. But the man himself remained unassuming and humble, which again seeped through in his response to being adjudged the best actor in the State.
“I have just started and feel like I have a long way to go,” said the amiable 61-year-old actor, who won the laurel for his heart warming performance as Pappu Pisharadi, an Ottan Thullal artiste, in search of his missing son in Aalorukkam .
No, he did not think the recognition was late in coming and thoughtfully drew an analogy from his original profession of costume designing to drive home his point. “The first lesson in tailoring is to stitch a button hole before placing a button. My progression as an actor has also been something similar,” Indrans said.
His career, which is now over three-and-a-half decades old and nearly 500 films, was never a cake walk though for the actor born as Surendran to Palavilaveetil Kochuvelu and Gomathi at Kumarapuram in Thiruvananthapuram.
“A lot of pain, dreams, efforts went into the story of Surendran turning Indrans on silver screen,” as he recollected in his memoirs Soochiyum Noolum .
Though dropped out at Class 4 owing to poverty, the passion for theatre and books kept teaching him life’s invaluable lessons.
After being active in amateur theatre since the age of 14, Indrans, who runs a tailoring shop in Thiruvananthapuram, entered Malayalam film industry as an assistant costume designer and made a small appearance in Choothattam (1981).
A favourite with renowned filmmakers such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan, M.P. Sukumaran Nair, Padmarajan, and T.V. Chandran to name a few, Indrans won the special jury award in the State film awards in 2015 for his performance in Apothecary .
Some of his memorable movies include Kathavasheshan , Ramanam , Shudharil Shudhan , Drishtantham , Manroethuruthu , Pathi , Godse , Budhanum Chaplinum Chirikunnu , Pinneyum , Leela , Pottasbomb , Perariyathavar , and Lona to name a few.
