A Hero' plagued by planned online campaigns

February 4, 2016 was a big day for Nivin Pauly, as his debut production venture— Action Hero Biju — in which he essays the lead role, was slated to reach the theatres. It was after a gap of around 10 months that a film of Nivin, who wowed the viewers with the blockbuster Premam, came to the theatres.

But amid the anticipation, the film was found facing criticism from a section of audience on social media.

Nivin says he suspects it all happened as a result of a conspiracy. “For the first three days, we witnessed a wide campaign against Action Hero Biju on social media. Simultaneously, we were receiving good comments from audience. When we checked all those comments and reviews, we could see that the contents being spread were the same, but through different accounts and profiles. It was very clear that the campaign was a planned one,” says the actor.

When quizzed whether that act had any connection with the controversy during the release of his last film Premam, he says no. “During the release of Premam, there was no negative campaign like this. People went and watched the film and the reviews were genuine. Though we conceived it as good film, it became a big hit owing to the support from the viewers.

I suspect all these activities started after the announcement of last year’s state awards (in which he bagged the award for best actor),”he says, adding, “But no such campaigns could defeat the run of a good film. If the project is good, it could make a brilliant comeback and  entertain the audience. Our’s is an example of that. Now it’s getting good response from every nook and corner. And like that, no bad films could win even though it gets good campaign.”

Nivin opens up about the factor behind his decision to produce the film by himself along with the director Abrid Shine and their friend Shibu - “From the past few months, I was very much interested in producing a movie and it was then that Shine chettan came up with this project. His idea was to do a police story which should be very different from cop films so far. He wanted to make a realistic movie. It was how, as an actor, I entered  this project. As a producer, I was not worried if the film was going to be a hit or a flop, but the one thing I was sure of was that I was producing a good film,” he says.     

The actor is now touted as one of the superstars along with Mohanlal, Mammootty and Prithviraj, after he gave continuous superhits, especially Premam. When asked about this, Nivin says, “I am not bothered about such status. Such comments started coming after the success of Premam. In fact, it was an unexpected success. Though we knew it would be a good film, it became a blockbuster. When it comes to the superstar status, personally, it does not affect me. After the work of each film, I naturally join the next project and become busy with that.”

The actor, who broke his romantic hero image with the role of a cop in Action Hero Biju, will be seen next in the role of a family man in his mentor Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Jacobinte Swargarajyam. “Joining the sets of Vineeth is like going back to family. Likewise the  subject is also a family oriented one. It will be a feel-good film which revolves around a family settled abroad,” says Nivin, who is all set to go back to Tamil film industry with debutant Goutham’s film, which is scheduled to start rolling from May last week.