‘Kurup just isn’t for OTT’: actor Dulquer Salmaan on his manufacturing ventures and the OTT market

Dulquer Salmaan is a compulsively likeable star. It in all probability has one thing to do together with his straightforward manner. Over a Zoom name from his dwelling in Kochi, he notices my bookshelf. “I like your assortment,” he tells me. Maybe his endearing on-screen characters akin to Faizi (Ustad Lodge), Charlie (Charlie) and Aadi (OK Kanmani) affect our notion of his off-screen persona. Even when he performs a conman — as he did in his final Tamil movie that launched earlier this yr, Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal — it’s straightforward to root for his character.

So it isn’t stunning to see his newest Instagram publish, revealing a brand new coiffure (with lengthy curls) recover from 1,00,000 likes. I ask if the look is for an upcoming function and he laughs. “I did it as a result of I can. As actors, we continuously need to get into completely different characters and appears. So when my taking pictures stopped in March [with the pandemic], I considered letting unfastened and didn’t minimize my hair,” says Salmaan, who spent lockdown cooking, studying and taking part in together with his three-year-old daughter, Maryam.

After a protracted break, his consideration is now occupied with movies as soon as once more following the Onam launch of Maniyarayile Ashokan. His newest manufacturing enterprise options American-Indian actor Jacob Gregory in a lead function for the primary time, and regardless of opening to blended evaluations (it was panned for being “largely uninteresting” and “predictable”), it has been trending at No three in India on Netflix this week.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

How have you ever coped with the pandemic?

You’ve gotten good days and unhealthy days. Initially it was good to get some much-needed household time however quickly, I began to fret about the way forward for the world, of our work. We simply began a manufacturing home and there are mounting curiosity prices each month. There are days when I’m staring on the ceiling, unable to sleep. However I’ve spent some superb time with my daughter who turned three throughout lockdown. I’ve largely been a ‘visiting dad’ due to shoots. Now, she is chatting with me much more and is involving me in her on a regular basis life.

Maniyarayile Ashokan is your second manufacturing enterprise this yr.

It’s our second launch, however the first movie we made. It might have been straightforward to ask a well-known EP [executive producer] to supply the movie and handle the price range, however I used to be eager on getting a brand new workforce beneath my manufacturing home. Gregory needed my opinion on a script {that a} bunch of kids had approached him with, asking him to play the lead. After listening to it, I believed ‘Why don’t we produce the movie? Even when it went mistaken, it could give a brand new workforce a chance’. Nevertheless it was a stunning expertise. With so many newcomers [five departments] it jogged my memory of my first movie as an actor, Second Present. I wasn’t the one one messing up and we had been all studying collectively. So, in that sense, I like that we started with this movie.

There appears to be camaraderie in Malayalam cinema. Directors play small roles in differents’ movies; Fahadh Faasil did a voiceover in your film, CIA.

I don’t assume something is deliberate. As a result of we’re so small, everyone knows one another and attain out to our mates and associates for assist. And they’re keen to do it. The factor is, you begin engaged on a movie with a workforce and by the point you begin your subsequent movie, a few of these teammates might need began engaged on one other movie with a competing actor. Then you’ll be able to’t be like ‘I’m not going to love you since you are working with this man’. You might be insecure solely early in your profession. As soon as you are feeling like individuals have accepted you, you might be open to doing these little issues.

The sooner era had two large stars, Mohanlal and Mammooty. Now we see actors like Soubin and Suraj, who was once comedians, taking part in lead roles. Sooner or later, will there be a constellation of proficient actors?

Soubin was an assistant director for 17 years. Out of sheer expertise, he turned a lead actor. The identical goes with Suraj. He was doing comedy roles for a very long time and when he determined to do critical cinema, he turned a phenomenon. As quickly as you might be known as a star, it turns into a burden. Each movie is anticipated to do sure numbers. With Mohanlal and Mammooty, it was a given due to their profession graphs and fan-following of over three and a half a long time. The remainder of us should continuously preserve doing good content material. As a result of there are such a lot of completely different sorts of films being made, all people has an opportunity.

A poster of Kurup