Kerala - Kannur   

A success story in acting

Mohamed Nazeer

Thampi Antony

KANNUR: For a civil engineer-cum-architect by profession currently involved in health care business in the United States of India, it is a quantum leap to play a lead role in a film and win an international award for best actor.

Thampi Antony, who plays the lead role of Prof. Acharya in the Hollywood film, `Beyond the Soul' directed by Rajiv Anchal, sees the chance he got to act in the film as a `jump.' The best actor award he has secured at the Honolulu International Film Festival in 2005 is much more than what can be expected by one who is a stranger to the mainstream world of Malayalam movies or the film world of any place for that matter. But Thampi Antony is not a complete stranger to the world of movies as his brother Babu Antony has been an action hero of repute in the Malayalam cinema.

"Acting was my passion during my college days and I tried to continue to cultivate that passion after I have settled in the U.S.,'' says Mr. Antony who is here to attend a function organised by engineers. He worked for the Irrigation Department for one year before he left for the U.S. in 1984. Living in San Francisco where he is doing health care business in partnership with his actor brother, Mr. Antony acted in two plays - `Idachakkaplamood Police Station' and `Doctor Daivasahayam' - for the Malayali Association of North California (MANCA).

Hailing from Ponkunnam, Mr. Antony's first tryst with the film world was when he did a guest appearance for a tele film done by Rajiv Anchal. That has paved the way for his playing the lead role in `Beyond the Soul,' which has been shot in both the U.S. and Kerala. "The best actor award at the Honolulu festival is a big recognition for me as it is for the first time an Indian has got the best actor award there,'' he says. The film has also won best feature film and best screenplay awards at the New York International Independent Film Festival.

Mr. Antony says that he enjoyed doing the cast of Prof. Acharya, an Ayurveda expert, in the film which projects the culture and tradition of Kerala to the West. The film has just been released in Thiruvananthapuram and will be released in more centres soon. He feels that he has done justice to the cast though that character has little affinity with his personal background. The film has been widely appreciated in San Fransico where it has been screened in four theaters, he adds. Mr. Antony has also acted in `Made in USA.'

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