He picked up the call after just two rings. Betraying no airs, that one might have expected from an established actor in Bollywood, Prashant Narayanan agreed to talk, even though he was in the midst of a shoot.
The actor, who is noted for his roles in films including Mr Singh Mrs Mehta, Murder 2 and Issaq, is now shifting focus to Malaya lam, his mother tongue. After Lenin Rajend ran’s Edava pathy, he essayed a pivotal role in editor turned director Don Max’s debut directorial venture 10 Kalpanakal.
He throws light on his Kerala connection: “I am a Malayali, who loves to speak in my mother tongue. Though I was born in Kannur, my hometown, my schooling was in Delhi. My parents were strict that I should study and speak Malayalam. So coming to Mollywood was in fact my dream since I started my career.”
Prashant says it was after watching his performance in Edavapathy that Don approached him for the role. “It was when Don was in search for an actor to essay a key role in his movie that he happened to watch my performance in Edava pathy. When he contacted the crew of that film, they told him I am a Keralite,” says the actor.
Even though Malayalam was no alien language for the actor, he had to take an extra effort during dubbing. “In my family, we used to speak the typical Kannur dialect. But when it comes to this movie – 10 Kalpanakal – my character was not a Kannur guy, so I had to avoid that slang while acting and dubbing for my role. I think, Don must have used his own dialect for the character,” he laughs, adding “I still believe that the style we follow in Kannur is the easiest.”
Quiz him about the late entry to his home industry, he says, “As I said earlier, I was eager to act in Malayalam. In fact, I had acted in Sibi Malayil’s Unnam along with Asif Ali, around four years back. But it is only now that I got a chance to become active in this industry. To be frank, my parents have been telling me to go to Kerala and act in Malayalam since I started this career. Now I feel proud that I could fulfill their wish.”
Prashant says he doesn’t want to take up all sorts of roles. “I want to enact roles which are central to the film. Only then will I feel responsible for the victory of that project. I am not ready to do any small role. For such ‘idiot’ roles, there are many ‘idiot’ actors around us,” he quips.
The actor feels that the reach of Malayalam films is much less compared to Bollywood. “There in Hindi and other North Indian languages, when makers come up with something different, people are ready to go to cinemas and watch that product. But here I feel that many good films are not getting good response. That scenario should change,” he says.
Does he dream of making a film? “Yes, may be. Prithviraj is also going to direct right? (he laughs). But before that I have to act in many films in Malayalam and I want to team up with Lal Jose, Jayaraj and other master directors there.”
About 10 Kalpanakal, he says: “It is an excellent crime thriller, which is the brainchild of Don. I cannot reveal more about the project, which is now all set to reach theatres.”
