Here is an excerpt from 'Malayalam actor Prithviraj's interview with Film Companion's Vivek Ranjit
This is your 15th year in the industry. You've been a fantastic actor, a great singer, a superstar, a producer, and now you are turning into a director. So how do you see this current phase of your career?
Definitely, I could rate this as the best phase I've been through, not for the fact that I've grown in the stature of an actor, or for the fact that I'm charging so much money for the films that I'm acting in, but for the fact that I'm in a space where I have enough clout within the industry, to pick a script that I like, and to make sure that it's made in the way it should be made. So basically I'm in a position where I can facilitate my own projects, and I really enjoy that, and to be really frank I don't even want the next phase. This is the phase I want to be in forever. As long as I'm in cinema, if I can continue doing what I'm doing right now, I'm happy.
Now you've been acting as a leading man since you were 18 or 19 years old, and mostly characters that were older than that particular age. Have you ever missed the campus life or college life or doing normal stuff, normal teenager stuff?
Yeah, I have, I absolutely have. Anonymity is priceless, you don't realise it till you lose it, but then when I complain about the loss of anonymity, there's so much that this job has given me. There's so much that cinema has given me, so I guess it's a trade off that you'll have to learn to live with. Have I learned to live with it, I'm not sure, but I guess I don’t see a point in complaining. I did not have a conventional campus life. The only two years of college that I went, I did it in another country. The culture of college is quite different from what we're used to in India, and I made a very early entry into films.
Working with seniors, most of them were your dad's colleagues as well
Yeah, I mean for the longest time, you know, I used to call actors like Jagdeesh and all Edaa in films, because they used to play my friends and stuff. So, it was, I mean I still remember in a film called Chakram, an actor called Shrihari used to address me Chandrayeta. He must be two and a half times my age, I guess, I don't know how old Chandrahasan is, yeah that was a weird space to be in. But I also think that's an integral part of the refinement process I have been through as an actor.
You got it on very early on
Yeah, I mean it's a great place to be 34-year-old and doing your one hundredth film. And now you have the wealth of experience, to implement what you will practice for the next, I don't know how many ever years you're gonna do this. That's a great place to be in, and in that sense I'm a very lucky actor.
Most of your young actors in Malayalam cinema, you're almost 10 years senior to them, be it Nivin Pauly or Dulquer Salmaan or Fahad Faasil. Do you like their work?
Yeah I like all their work - all of them are talented, that's why they're here obviously. I envy them for the fact that they probably came into cinema in a much more healthier time for Malayalam cinema. But I also have to attribute their success to the kind of efforts they have put in and the sheer attitude that they carry with them towards cinema, like you said I've only worked with Nivin and Asif, and both of them are talented in their own way, and I've seen the films of Dulquer and Fahad and both of them are talented actors, in their own place. and yeah it's great that there is young talent in Malayalam. I mean it's great that there is young talent that's got a cosmopolitan appeal. I believe that's the way Malayalam cinema can grow. Ultimately it can grow through it's actors and the younger crop that we have currently, I truly think has the potential to do that.
Full interview on www.filmcompanion.in
