Script is star

Every time, the script did it. When director Shebi met senior actor Maniyanpilla Raju at Trivandrum Club, he was looking for a young man who could play his 21-year-old hero. Shebi and his producer had run through many artists' names but no one would fit in. That's when Maniyanpilla showed him his son Niranj's photo who had just returned from London after his higher studies. "It was like he gave me what was on my mind. I told him about the script I had of a young man falling in love with an older woman. He didn't seem too interested at first but said he will call me a week later after reading the script. And then he calls me the next morning and tells me it is a wonderful script, and it has all the ingredients — there's the family aspect, there are youngsters, and there is comedy," Shebi says, a day before his film Bobby is to release.

There was the same problem when he approached Miya George, the female lead in the film, to play the older woman, Maria. "She was confused. Then I gave the script and she came back saying she liked it. Even her mom was happy with the script." 

The idea of the story came to Shebi partly from a real life incident. One of his friends' sisters had eloped with a man and come to Kochi. The man's family was rich and took him away. The girl couldn't come back home so she took a flat and fought for the man. "Only Maria's part is inspired. Bobby is my addition. The age factor is also new." Shebi wanted to see how a younger man would be protective of his older partner. Here 21-year-old Bobby shows all the immaturity of his age as he gets married to 28-year-old Maria. 

Shebi appears to specialise in coming-of-age subjects, his first film had been Plus 2, starring Roshan Basheer and Shafna. After that he took a thriller called Tourist Home and also a Tamil movie titled Moondru Rasigargal on Vijay fans.

This time the script is his own, and he has found it quite advantageous when it comes to discussions of the film. Shebi's original title had been I am 21. "I had at the time met Prithviraj to talk about another project. It was he who suggested I call it Bobby, the name of the lead character. That is also the trend these days," he says.

Shebi's next is a thriller on four senior citizens and their revenge, which will start shooting in November.