Kaapa actor Asif Ali: Grew up watching Mohanlal-Shaji Kailas films in theatres, always wanted to work with him

Malayalam actor Asif Ali is one of the select few young actors who have the chance to collaborate with veteran filmmakers. Though he had worked with Sibi Malayil, Sathyan Anthikad and Joshiy, he was yet to feature in a film helmed by Shaji Kailas – until the recently released Kaapa.

In an interview ahead of its theatrical release, the actor opened up about working with the hit filmmaker in the gangster drama, which also has Prithviraj Sukumaran, Anna Ben and Aparna Balamurali.

“Shaji sir is one of the few senior filmmakers I had not worked with. From my childhood, I have loved Mohanlal-Shaji Kailas films and would celebrate them while watching in theatres. So, I have always wanted to work with him, especially after his comeback with Kaduva in a 2.0 version,” he said, in an interview with Red FM.

Incidentally, the movie was initially set to be directed by another veteran filmmaker Venu. “Shaji sir’s version is different from what Venu sir had in mind but the screenplay was more or less the same. The greatest excitement for me was that I could see several signature Shaji Kailas shots on the sets,” said Asif.

Also read: Kaapa movie review: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Asif Ali’s gangster-drama lacks emotional heft to be engaging enough 

The actor explained how he was excited to feature in one of those shots, giving the instance of a sequence where his character, Anand, was getting ready to leave Thiruvananthapuram and zips his bag. “Shaji sir made the zip sound and I knew immediately that was one of his signature shot,” he said, adding that he was impressed with how the filmmaker went about his process – taking only minimal shots and following the edit pattern to the dot.

Asif, however, clarified that his character per se didn’t belong to the usual Shaji Kailas’ ‘massy’ roles that have come to highlight the filmmaker’s career. “Such a character was more played by Prithviraj in this film,” he said.

Kaapa, which is based on GR Indugopan’s script, is set to begin streaming on Netflix from January 19.