From Premam to Happy Wedding

For a while, actor Siju Wilson alias Wilson Joseph was popular as Royichan, the name of the character that he essayed in the sitcom Just for Fun Chumma, telecast in a popular Malayalam television channel. It was later he acted in Alphonse Puthren’s Premam, which eventually became one of the blockbusters of 2015,  and his character in the film helped him to become popular under his own name.

Though his role in Premam as Jojo earned good reviews, the actor was not seen in any films after that. But now Siju is back in action, after a brief gap, with Happy Wedding, in which he essays the lead role. It was around ten months ago Siju got the call to do this film. “It was following the release of Premam one of my friends called and told me that some of his friends wanted to narrate a story to me. Within a few days, they came and briefed the story. In fact, they had not watched Premam; they came to me after seeing my performance in Arju Benn’s short film Kattan Kaappi,” says the actor, who agreed to act in the film, just because he liked the basic concept of the film.

Siju was with director Omar, writers Praneesh and Maneesh, while the scripting was happening at a flat near Aluva. “It would be a feel-good, out and out comedy film. I act as Hari, an Aluva-native settled in Thrissur. He is a civil engineer graduate,” says the nurse-turned-actor. The actor, who started his career with a small role in Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Malarvadi Arts Club, says it was owing to his passion for cinema he quit his nursing career. “Even while pursuing B.Sc nursing at an institute in Bengaluru, my mind was full of art and cinema. Though I joined for post-graduation, I dropped that in order to become an actor,” he says.

Happy Wedding will be a reunion for actor Siju, Justin, Sharafudheen and Soubin after Premam. “It was during the scripting the director became close with Sharaf and others. Later, they also became part of this film,” says Siju, adding, “It was really a good experience as the major share of actors was friends off-screen also.” Siju is now all set to act along with Nivin Pauly after Premam. “My next film will be Althaf’s (Premam fame) debut directorial venture, in which I act as Nivin’s brother-in-law,” he says.