Happy times ahead

Nivin Pauly makes his Tamil debut with Neram. The actor also has a bunch of plum roles in Malayalam films, such as English, on the anvil

Nivin and Nazriya in Neram

It’s time again for another major step in Nivin Pauly’s career. The actor makes his Kollywood debut with the bilingual Neram , directed by Alphonse Puthren, which hit theatres on Friday. The film has already been in the news for the re-mastered version of Jagathy Sreekumar’s seemingly ridiculous but cult lyrics ‘Pistah Suma Kira Somari Jama Kiraya…’ from the movie Kinnaram , which went viral. Neram , in which Nivin stars with Nazriya Nazim, also revives the team that made the hit music album Yuvvh, a while ago.

It’s been a short journey on the silver screen for Nivin. But already the software engineer-turned-actor has managed to make an impact in the industry. His career has had all the highs and lows of, well, a good movie! The actor started off playing an angry young man in Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Malarvady Arts Club but it’s his chocolate hero role in Thattathin Marayathu , again by Vineeth, that turned out to be the turning point in his career. However, some of the high profile films that followed failed to sizzle at the box office.

Nivin, who is pinning his hopes on

Neram , says: “It is a comedy thriller, even though the situations are really serious. There’s a humourous track too in the backdrop.” The actor plays the role of Mathew in the film (Vetri in the Tamil version), who is, incidentally, a software engineer. “Mathew is currently unemployed and is struggling to maintain his lifestyle. The story happens in a brief time span and Mathew finds himself facing one setback after another in quick succession. Everyone goes through good times and bad. When the times are good they are really good and everything falls into place. And then when its bad, it’s really bad and nothing works out! We all face such situations and

Neram is based on this aspect of life,” he says.

Nivin’s got more to look forward to. His next film,

English , directed by Shyamaprasad, is set to release on May 17. It’s about the lives of four expatriate Malayalis living in England. In it, again, Nivin plays a software engineer.

“Mathew of Neram and Sibin, my character in English , couldn’t be more different. Sibin earns good money and lives the high life. He is footloose and fancy free. He’s a bit of a Casanova too. There comes a time when we have to make certain decisions that can possibly change our lives for ever. Sibin has some tough decisions to take,” he explains. The actor adds that it was the film’s script, written by techie Ajayan Venugopalan, that attracted him to the project.

Nivin has also completed shooting for Sunil Ibrahim’s

Arikil Oraal and has now joined the set of debutant director Abrid Shine’s

1983 . He will soon start shooting for Rajesh Pillai's

Motorcycle Diaries .

Nivin insists that he is still not comfortable doing romantic roles. “It’s true! I approach them with caution. I prefer tough roles. There is this romantic number in Neram , which, luckily for me, was not too romantic!” says Nivin, with that dimpled smile that has won him legions of admirers.