The Emmy nominee from Kerala
Prema Manmadhan
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Jyothilal, a focus puller, was in the semi-finals for the Emmy Nominations in the best actor category two years ago.
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FOCUSSED: Jyothilal portrayed LTTE leader Prabhakaran in the film `In the name of Buddha.'
Ben Kingsley, Tom Cruise, Jackie Chan and Jyothilal were in the semi-finals for the Emmy Nominations in the best actor category, two years ago, and Ben Kingsley, was the one who got nominated. The first three names are popular the world over, but who is the third?
In focus
He played the role of LTTE leader Prabhakaran, in Rajesh Touchriver's `In the Name of Buddha.' That is his only movie. The movie is banned in India. Jyothilal, who resembles Prabhakaran, works in tinsel world, but the 40-year-old Malayali from Dhanuvachapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, is not a professional actor. He is, in fact, a focus puller.
A focus puller sees to it that the focus is right when the cameraman moves around to take the shots. He assists the cameraman. After this one film in 2003, in which he got clubbed along with the big guns in the movie industry, he remains a focus puller in Maniratnam's company.
He is happy the movie did well in the West. The biggest accolade, he says, was when some Sri Lankan friends of Prabhakaran, thought the LTTE chief had acted in the movie after seeing `In the Name of Buddha.' That was his biggest award, Jyothilal says.
Currently working with a crew in Kerala, he is busy earning his daily bread as a focus puller. "I love my work with the camera, so it doesn't matter, really," he laughs.
But Rajesh Touchriver, who directed him in the movie, feels he is a good actor who should be given opportunities. "Vijayaraghavan was originally slated to play Prabhakaran, but he backed out owing to dates . That's when I spotted Lal, moving back and forth through the lens, while I was at Ramoji Rao Film city. I thought he would be good for the role, with his looks and bearing," Touchriver says.
Just for a lark
Jyothilal says that when he was approached, he did not take it seriously, but accepted it for a lark. "When I wore the uniform, had my hair cut and donned the uniform, I felt like Prabhakaran. At first, the director told me there would not be much dialogues. But later, I learnt there were a lot of dialogues. It was Tamil, but the Sri Lankan dialect. I wrote it all in Malayalam and learnt it before the shooting began," says Jyothilal.
Touchriver gave him a cassette in which Prabhakaran featured so that he could pick up his mannerisms, and way of speaking. His resemblance to Prabhakaran was a crucial factor, which got him this role, for Touchriver does not use make-up for his characters.
The protagonist of the movie was a man called Siva and it showed the atrocities committed by soldiers. Because of the controversial subject, Sri Lanka banned the movie, followed by China, and then India. It was screened in Europe and America.
`In the name of Buddha' got several international awards too, one of which was the Beverly Hills International award for the best foreign film.
"It ran in London for three and a half months and in Paris for two and a half months," says Touchriver, now filming his first commercial movie, a Telugu film, slated for release this month.
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