Nedumudi Venu's favourite role was this

Four decades of acting career. More than 500 movies. Veteran actor Nedumudi Venu shared his experiences in Malayalam film industry in a conversation on the topic ‘Abhinayathinte Naalu Pathittandu; Nadanam Nedumudi’ (4 decades of acting) with MP Surendran at Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL) held in Kanakkunnu Palace on Sunday.

Starting from his debut movie ‘Thampu’ directed by G Aravindan, he traced his incredible journey of 40 years. He said that he was fortunate to work with directors like G Aravindan, John Abraham and KG George. He opined that as far as an actor is concerned, he gets more chances to perform when he is given a role which is different from character.

Nedumudi Venu said that he looks for a different role which helps him to experiment more in acting. He mentioned that the character he had performed in the Mammootty starrer movie ‘Best Actor’ was one of his favourites. “I was busy when I got an offer to act in the movie ‘Best Actor’. But, I was surprised when the director and actors like Mammootty was waiting for a long time to cast me in the movie. So, I joined and I tried to make the role different. Finally, the character was well received by the audience,” he said.

When asked about how he attains perfection in doing a role, he responded that after learning about a character he will collect details from the director and create a biography of the character. After doing this, that character in me will speak and act only according to my commands. He also mentioned that an actor must not become a character. The person should have control over the actor in him and should never lose individuality completely during the process of acting. He opined that the performance of an actor strengthens when the opposite actor is equally powerful. He said that acting with Bharath Gopi and Jagathy was a similar experience.

While speaking about Jagathy, he stated that he is the only actor in the world who runs from one set to another and does many films together without flaws. Many of the movies in which Jagathy had acted were not up to the standards. But, his scenes will be wonderful and it is a talent which no other actor possesses. His dedication and ability to become a character within a short span of time is really commendable. “Though the demise of many people has hurt me, the death of Kavalam Narayana Panicker was one of the biggest losses that I had. I felt extremely lonely after he passed away.

When asked about the experience of acting with women, he said that they gave more importance to appearance than performance. He advised actresses to give more importance to perfection in acting than focussing on the looks.