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Superstar in waiting

Far-sighted Prithiviraj has set his sights on filmmaking and direction

Instead of vacationing in Las Vegas or Goa, as his friends suggested, Prithiviraj chose to go on an eight-day biking trip in the Himalayas. Along with a friend Arjun, he set out to discover an India that the duo had never seen before.

“We travelled on two Bullets and each day was an adventure. We slept and ate in the houses of Pahadis and really roughed it out. Saw some unforgettable sights and spent New Year in the Himalayas,” recounts Prithiviraj. But then Prithiviraj, hailed as the superhero-in-waiting, has usually chosen the path less travelled. Unlike many star sons who rode piggyback to the silver screen on their parents’ clout, fame and money, he made his debut in Ranjith’s ‘Nandanam’ when he was still a student of engineering in Tasmania, Australia.

Although his career graph took time to look up, his clever choice of roles and determination have made him one of the busiest stars in South India. He will soon be acting in a Mani Ratnam film with Vikram and Aiswarya Rai. Making no attempt to hide his delight at the opportunity he gushes: “Mani Ratnam is one of the reasons I am in films.”

However, bitten by the acting bug, the actor never got around to completing his graduation. Does the fact that he has not completed his graduation bother him? “No, not really. It would have been nice if my arrival in tinsel town had happened a little later. On hindsight, I feel that cinema was always my destination. I wish I had gone to NYU or some place like that to study cinema,” says the star.

But he feels that his two years in Tasmania helped him grow as a person. “I became more independent. Learnt to do everything, from washing and cooking to managing my finance, on my own.” “Actually,” he adds with a grin, “I am a very good cook. I cook exotic Chinese dishes that I learnt from my friends, who happened to be women.”

But cooking is not his hobby. That is just something he does well. Just like singing, a talent he seems to have inherited from his mother, Mallika Sukumaran. “Ranjith wanted me to croon a song in ‘Rock n’ Roll’ but I escaped,” he laughs as he takes a break from the shoot at Vismaya Max in Kazhakuttam.

Prithiviraj is into books and his eclectic tastes have him reading a wide range of books that range from thrillers and pulp fiction to tomes on cinema and philosophy. “I think my brother, Indrajith, and I inherited the passion for reading from my father, Sukumaran, who was a voracious reader. He would read nine newspapers and the library we had at home would beat many of the libraries in several colleges. He had a thirst for knowledge,” recalls Prithiviraj.

Perhaps it is that desire to learn that finds Prithiviraj take a keen interest in all the minutiae that goes into filmmaking. “ If there is something new on a set, say a new camera, I make it a point to understand its working within two days, ”

Talk cinema and Prithiviraj becomes animated. He feels that Indian cinema in general and Malayalam cinema in particular must adapt the best of international technology but look for “content and stories within our culture and language.” “Why should we borrow stories from Hollywood or Bollywood. Our literature is so rich and diverse. And I think we should have more films in English. We are so comfortable in the language and that is one of the ways to cater to the world,” he points out.

“Ten years from now, I see myself as a director and a producer with my own production house that will, hopefully, make good films. Not just films in Malayalam and Tamil. But Indian films in English that will appeal to regional and international audiences,” says the actor.

And marriage. “Yes, that is on the cards. But only to someone I know well enough and I am comfortable with.”

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