A turning point for Bhagat Manuel

Ever since he started watching films, it has been his dream to become part of a project directed by Siddique, whose films have regularly entered the hit chart. Now, on the sixth year of his acting career, Bhagat Manuel has got the much-awaited opportunity to appear in a frame set by his favourite director in his latest venture Fukri. “It was all of a sudden that I got a call to the film from production controller A.D. Sreekumar chettan. It was just a few days before the film started rolling that I was recruited as Franklin in the film. I feel it is a big break in my career,” says the actor. Jayasurya enacts the lead role — Lucky — in the film.

“It is my second movie with Jayettan after Midhun Manuel Thomas-directed Aadu Oru Bheekarajeevi Aanu. He is a wonderful person, who supports his co-artistes to come up with their best. In fact, it is while acting in Fukri that we became close,” says Bhagat. “We are all set to team up again for Captain, a biopic on former Indian football team captain V.P. Sathyan. It will be directed by Prajeesh Sen, an associate of Siddique sir. The director has already asked me to start practicing, though my role is not yet revealed,” he laughs.

Bhagat shares his excitement on becoming part of a new phenomenon in Malayalam cinema — ‘Dubbing on Wheels’. “It was Jenso chettan, one of the producers of the Fukri, who indicated about the new arrangement for dubbing on the location. He said ‘you cannot leave the sets after shoot as you have to stay back there for dubbing also’. But it was really a great experience. My complete dubbing was done in the ‘Dubbing on Wheels’ caravan,” he says.

He admits that many of his films did not do well even though he chose those projects after analysing the importance of his roles. “I have done many movies because of friendship with directors and the crew. From now, I am not going to become part of small films even though I get main roles. Fukri is a big break in my career. I want to maintain this momentum by doing similar good projects,” he sums up.